A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a jury's finding in a civil case that Donald Trump sexuallyꩲ abused a columnist in an upscale department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.
The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals issued a written opinion upholding the USD 💮5 million award that the🥀 Manhattan jury granted to E. Jean Carroll for defamation and sexual abuse.
The longtime magazine columnist had testified at a 2023 trial that Trump turned a friendly encounter in spring 1996 into a violent attack after they playfully entered the stor🌊e's dressing room.
Trump skipped the trial afte꧙r repeatedly denying the attack ever happened. But he briefly testified at a follow-up defamation trial earlier this year that resulted in a USD 83.3 million award. The second trial resulted from comments then-President Trump made in 2019 after Carroll first made the accusations publicly in a memoir.
In its ruling, a three-judge panel of the appeals court rejected claims by Trump's lawyers that trial Judge Lewis A. Kaplan had made multiple decisions that spoiled the trial, including his decision to allow two other women who had accused Trump of sexually abusing them to tes💦tify.
The jud🍌ge also had allowed the jury to view the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump boasted in 2005 about grabbing women's genitals because when someone is a star, “you can do anything.”
“We conclude that M🎶r. Trump has n꧟ot demonstrated that the district court erred in any of the challenged rulings," the 2nd Circuit said. “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.”
In September, both Carroll, 81,ꦰ and Trump, 78, attended oral argume꧟nts by the 2nd Circuit.
Steven Cheung, a Trump spokesperson, said in a statement that Trump was elected by voters who delivered "an overwhelming mandate, and they demand an immediate end to the political we⛄aponization 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.”
Roberta Kaplan, a lawyer who represented Carroll during the trial and is not related to the judge, said in a statement: “Both E. Jean Carroll and I are gratified by ꦺtoday's decision. We thank the Second Circuit for its careful consideration of the parties' argಌuments.”
The first jury found in May 2023 that Trump sexually abused C♚arroll and defamed her with comments he made in O⛎ctober 2022. That jury awarded Carroll USD 5 million.
In January, a second jury awarded Carroll an additional USD 83.3 million in damages for comments Trump had made about her while he was president, finding that they were defamatory. That jury had ဣbeen instructed by the judge to accept the first jury's finding that Trump had sexually abused Carroll.
Trump testified for under three minutes at the second trial and was not permitted to challenge conclusions reached by the May 2023 jury. Still, 𒅌he was animated in the courtroom throughout the two-week trial, and jurors could hear him grumbling about the case.
