On Monday, a federal appeals court upheld the jury’s verdict that found President-elect Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing columnist E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s, and denied his request for a new trial. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a written opinion upholding the $5 million award that a Manhattan jury granted to Carroll for defamation and sexual abuse, stating that Trump’s legal team failed to show any errors in the ruling that would lead to a new trial.
In the 2023 trial, the jury found Trump liable of abusing Carroll in a dressing room at Manhattan’s Bergdorf Goodman department store, and defamed her with comments he made in October 2022. That jury awarded Carroll $5 million. A separate jury awarded Carroll an additional $83.3 million after finding Trump defamed her by denying the sexual abuse. Trump has also appealed that verdict, repeatedly denying the allegations since Carroll first made them and calling the judgments overly excessive.
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan said (per NBC News): “[We] are gratified by today’s decision. We thank the Second Circuit for its careful consideration of the parties’ arguments.”
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement: “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. We look forward to uniting our country in the new administration as President Trump makes America great again.”
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