A federal appeals court has upheld writer E. Jean Carroll’s $5 million civil judgment against President-elect Donald Trump.
A jury awarded Carroll the sum last year after finding Trump responsible for sexually abusing her in the 1990s and then defaming her after she went public with her allegations.
Trump denied the allegations and appealed the verdict, accusing it of being “grossly excessive” and saying it should be thrown out because of what he said were unfair rulings by the judge who presided over the nine-day trial.
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit disagreed.
“We conclude that Mr. Trump has not shown that the district court erred in any of the challenged rulings. Furthermore, he has not shouldered the burden of showing that any claimed error or combination of claimed errors affected his substantial rights as required to justify a new trial,” says the judges’ ruling.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in response to the ruling: “The American people have re-elected President Trump with an overwhelming mandate and are demanding an immediate end to the political militarization of our justice system and the swift firing of all those in the hunt. of witches, including the Democrat-funded Carroll hoax, which will continue to be appealed.
Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said in a statement that she and her client “are pleased with today’s decision. We thank the Second Circuit for its careful consideration of the parties’ arguments.”
Carroll later posted a link to a news story about the ruling on Facebook, adding, “Thank you, Robbie Kaplan!”
Carroll’s lawsuit alleged that Trump sexually assaulted her in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store in 1996 and that he defamed her by calling her claim a “hoax” and “scam” after leaving office in 2021.
Trump did not testify or present a defense case. Her appeal focused on what she said were critical errors by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, including allowing testimony from two other women who claimed they were sexually harassed by Trump.
Jessica Leeds alleged that Trump began groping her out of the blue while they were sitting next to each other on a flight to New York in the late 1970s, while Natasha Stoynoff testified that Trump pushed her against a wall and began kissing her in 2005. when she was at his Mar-a-Lago resort to interview him and Melania Trump for a story about their first wedding anniversary. Trump has denied his accusations.
His attorneys also cited Kaplan’s decision to allow the jury to hear the tape called “Access Hollywood” as another error. The 2005 recording caught Trump on a hot microphone bragging that he can grope women without their consent because “when you’re a star, they let you do it.”
The appeals court concluded that Judge Kaplan had not “abused his discretion” by allowing that evidence into the case. The “evidence of other conduct was relevant to show a pattern that tends to directly corroborate the witness testimony and confirm that the alleged sexual assault actually occurred,” the ruling says.
Trump is also appealing Carroll’s $83 million defamation judgment against him in a separate but related case that focuses on defamatory comments he made about her while he was president and then after the $5 million verdict.
That case was actually the first lawsuit he filed against Trump, but it stalled as Trump argued that his comments were protected by presidential immunity, a claim the judge rejected.
Trump is also appealing that verdict to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
