NEW YORK — A federal appeals court has reaffirmed a Manhattan jury’s earlier decision that former President Donald Trump sexually assaulted columnist E. Jean Carroll in a luxury department store’s changing room in the mid-1990s. The recent ruling on Monday also sustained the award of $5 million in damages for sexual abuse and defamation granted to Carroll by the jury.
Carroll, a veteran magazine writer, alleged at her 2023 trial that what began as a benign encounter with Trump in spring 1996 escalated into an assault inside the dressing room of the upscale store. Trump, who did not attend the trial, has consistently rebuffed these accusations. Nevertheless, he faced a second defamation trial earlier this year related to statements he made in 2019, raising Carroll’s claims in her memoir. This latter trial concluded with an $83.3 million judgment against him.
During the appeals procedure, Trump’s legal team argued that trial Judge Lewis A. Kaplan made several prejudicial rulings. Notably, Kaplan allowed the testimonies of two other women with similar allegations against Trump, and permitted the jury to see the well-known 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape where Trump is heard bragging about groping women. The tape was used to bolster the women’s testimonies, suggesting Trump’s behavior was a pattern.
In their decision, the judges of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stated, “Mr. Trump has not demonstrated that the district court erred with any of its rulings,” dismissing the notion that these purported errors warranted a new trial. Throughout their decision, the panel emphasized the adherence to due process, solidifying the original verdict’s stand.
Both the plaintiff and the defendant were present during the appeals court’s oral arguments in September. Following the ruling, Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan (no relation to Judge Kaplan), expressed satisfaction with the careful considerations and conclusions reached by the appeals court.
On the other hand, Trump’s spokesperson Steven Cheung criticized the decision, describing the legal challenges against Trump as a politically driven “witch hunt.” Despite the adverse rulings, Trump’s team has indicated plans for further appeals.
In 2023, a separate jury ruled Trump had defamed Carroll in a series of remarks made in October 2022 and awarded her an additional $83.3 million. The jury was instructed by the judge to rely on findings from the first trial that supported Carroll’s account of sexual abuse, and this verdict is still pending appeal.
Throughout both proceedings, Carroll testified that her career and personal life suffered significantly after Trump publicly denied her allegations. She claimed these denials prompted severe backlash, including death threats, which confined her to her cabin in upstate New York out of fear for her safety.
During the defamation trial, which spanned two weeks, Trump offered a brief testimony lasting less than three minutes and was restrained from disputing the jury’s prior conclusions from May 2023. Trump’s presence in the courtroom was noticeably agitated, and observers reported him vocally expressing dissatisfaction with the proceedings.
Trump’s lawyers during the September appeals argued that testimony from individuals who recounted Carroll disclosing the 1996 incident soon after it occurred was flawed due to their alleged bias against Trump. They also contested the inclusion of testimonies from the two other women accusing Trump of similar instances of sexual misconduct in past decades, which Trump also denied.
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