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 it found Trump liable for sexual abusing her in the 1990s and then defaming her after she went public with her allegations.
Trump has denied the allegations and appealed the verdict, charging it was "grossly excessive" and saying it should be tossed out because of what he claimed were unfair rulings by the judge who presided over the nine-day trial.
A panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed.
"We conclude that Mr. Trump has not demonstrated that the district court erred in any of the challenged rulings. Further, he has not carried his burden to show that any claimed error or combination of claimed errors affected his substantial rights as required to warrant a new trial," the judges' ruling said.
Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump, said in response to the ruling: “The American People have re-elected President Trump with an overwhelming mandate, and they demand an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system and a swift dismissal of all of the Witch Hunts, including the Democrat-funded Carroll Hoax, which will continue to be appealed."
Carroll attorney Roberta Kaplan said in a statement that she and her client “are gratified by 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 suit 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 a "con job" after he left office in 2021.
Trump did not testify or put on a defense case. His appeal focused on what he said were critical errors by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, including allowing testimony from two other women who claimed they had been sexually accosted by Trump.
Jessica Leeds alleged that Trump started to grope 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 started 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 their allegations.
His attorneys also cited Kaplan's decision to allow the jury to hear the so-called "Access Hollywood" tape as another error. The 2005 recording caught Trump on a hot mic bragging that he can grope women without their consent because "when you’re a star, they let you do it."
The appeals court found Judge Kaplan had not "abused his discretion" by letting that evidence into the case. The "evidence of other conduct was relevant to show a pattern tending to directly corroborate witness testimony and to confirm that the alleged sexual assault actually occurred," the ruling said.
Trump is also appealing Carroll's $83 million defamation judgment against him in a separate but related case centering on defamatory comments he made about her while he was president and then after the $5 million verdict.
That case was actually the first suit she filed against Trump, but it was stalled while Trump argued that his comments were protected by presidential immunity, a claim the judge rejected.
Trump is appealing that verdict to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, as well.
