A federal appeals court on Monday, December 30, upheld a jury's verdict in a civil case, ordering President-elect Donald Trump to pay $5 million for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll. The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals issued a written opinion affirming the $5 million award that Carroll, a longtime magazine columnist, received after a Manhattan jury found Trump liable for both defamation and sexual abuse.
Carroll had testified during a 2023 trial that what began as a chance encounter with Trump in the spring of 1996 escalated into a violent assault after the two entered the store’s dressing room. Trump's legal team had argued against the verdict, but the appellate court upheld the decision, concluding that the jury’s findings were supported by the evidence presented at trial. Trump skipped the trial after repeatedly denying the attack ever happened. But he briefly testified at a follow-up defamation trial earlier this year that resulted in an $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 by permitting two other women who had accused Trump of sexually abusing them to testify. The judge 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 Mr. Trump has not 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, and Trump, 78, attended oral arguments 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 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."
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' arguments."
The first jury found in May 2023 that Trump sexually abused Carroll and defamed her with comments he made in October 2022. That jury awarded Carroll $5 million.
In January, a second jury awarded Carroll an additional $83.3 million in damages for comments Trump had made about her while he was president, finding that they were defamatory. That jury had been instructed by the judge to accept the first jury's finding that Trump had sexually abused Carroll. The appeal of that verdict has not yet been heard.