A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a $5 million civil verdict finding President-elect Donald Trump liable for defamation and sexual abuse of E. Jean Carroll, rejecting his request for a new trial less than a month before his return. to power.
The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said Trump’s appeal failed to demonstrate the district court erred in its ruling and his appeal does not entitle him to a new trial.
Trump’s lawyers argued in their appeal that the district court accepted “inflammatory” evidence that has not been admitted, adding that the 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump boasted about “when you’re a star,” “We can do anything,” and they added, grabbing the women “by the pussy. “
Trump’s lawyers also took factor with the court permitting testimony from two other women: businesswoman Jessica Leeds, who said Trump groped her on a aircraft in the 1970s, and Natasha StoynoffArray who claimed Trump forcibly kissed her at his Mar-a-Lago apartment in 2005.
The appeal was rejected by a panel of three justices, all appointed by former President Barack Obama or President Joe Biden.
A jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and then defamation of E. Jean Carroll in a May 2023 decision, ordering Trump to pay $5 million in damages, or about $2 million for sexual abuse and $3 million more for defamation.
Trump is also challenging a separate $83. 3 million jury verdict that found him liable for defaming Carroll, centered on another set of Trump statements.
“E. Jean Carroll and I agree with today’s decision,” Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, told Forbes. “We thank the Second Circuit for its careful attention to the parties’ arguments. “
Carroll, an editor who ran a recommendation column for Elle magazine for decades, accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in a 2019 article for New York magazine. She said Trump attacked her in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman store in late 1995 or early 1996, which Trump said “never happened,” adding that Carroll was “not my type. “Carroll sued Trump in 2022 following the passage of the Adult Survivors Act, a law that allowed alleged victims of sexual assault to file lawsuits for incidents that would otherwise have expired. The case went to trial the following April, and a nine-person jury, consisting of six men and three women, found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation. The jury, however, did not find that Carroll had been raped. Trump criticized the verdict in a capitalized article on Truth Social, saying he had “absolutely no idea who this woman is” and called himself the victim of “the greatest witch hunt of all time. “
Monday’s appeal concerned Carroll’s second lawsuit against Trump, however, she had sued him in 2019 for defamation in the past before she could file a sexual assault lawsuit under the Adult Survivors Act. The first complaint involved Trump’s repeated attacks on Carroll after she published her column in New York magazine, alleging that Trump had made a “series of false and defamatory statements” in which he “defamed my lack of publicity, accused me of mendacity for personal gain, and even insulted my appearance. “A federal ruling found Trump liable in the defamation lawsuit in 2023, and a jury in January, after less than three hours of deliberation, found Trump owed $83. 3 million in damages. Three days before the March deadline for Trump to pay Carroll, he appealed and posted $91. 6 million bail to avoid paying her while his appeal proceeded. Trump also filed a countersuit alleging that Carroll defamed him in 2023, despite a ruling on the complaint dismissing the complaint.
Trump arrives at appeal hearing in first E. Jean Carroll case (Forbes)
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