A panel of three federal judges on Monday rejected president-elect Donald Trump’s appeal to overturn a 2023 civil trial verdict that he was liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s. The judges rejected Trump’s request for a new trial and upheld the $5 million Trump owes Carroll in damages.
The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Trump “has not carried his burden to show that any claimed error or combination of claimed errors affect his substantial rights as required to warrant a new trial.”
Trump’s attorneys had argued in their appeal that the court initially propped up Carroll’s “empty ‘he said, she said’ case with highly inflammatory, inadmissible evidence,” like the 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape where he said “you can do anything” as a star, including grabbing women “by the p—-.” The appellate court on Monday said the tape was admissible because a jury could have “reasonably concluded” that Trump “had kissed women without their consent and then proceeded to touch their genitalia.”
A jury previously found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll at a department store in the ’90s, and later defaming her. He was ordered to pay about $2 million for sexual abuse and another $3 million for defamation, based on Trump saying on social media in 2022 that Carroll’s allegations were a “complete con job”; he added that Carroll was “not my type.” Trump has denied he abused Carroll and told CNN last year he “never met her.”
Trump has also appealed the ruling in a separate civil trial that he owes Carroll $83.3 million for defaming her, based on other comments he made about the former Elle Magazine columnist. That appeal is still pending.
The Trump-Carroll legal battle has been in the news recently, with ABC News and George Stephanopoulos agreeing to pay Trump $15 million (plus $1 million in legal fees) for repeatedly claiming he was “liable for rape.” The civil jury found him liable for sexual abuse, which carries a different definition in New York, where the case took place.
