A federal appeals court on Monday upheld the $5 million verdict awarded to E. Jean Carroll after a jury found Donald Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation.
The three-judge panel of the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan unanimously rejected Trump’s claims that the trial was unfair due to evidence presented about his alleged past sexual misconduct.
The court ruled that the evidence, including Trump’s comments on the 2005 Access Hollywood video, demonstrated a “repeated, idiosyncratic pattern of conduct” consistent with Carroll’s allegations. In their decision, the court stated,
“Taking the record as a whole and considering the strength of Ms. Carroll’s case, we are not persuaded that any claimed error or combination of errors in the district court’s evidentiary rulings affected Mr. Trump’s substantial rights.”
The case stemmed from Carroll’s claim that Trump sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s and later defamed her in an October 2022 post on Truth Social. While the jury did not find Trump guilty of rape, they awarded Carroll $2.02 million for sexual assault and $2.98 million for defamation.
Trump has continued to deny Carroll’s allegations, calling them a “hoax” and claiming she fabricated the incident to promote her memoir. His spokesperson, Steven Cheung, labelled the case as part of “the political weaponization of our justice system” and vowed to continue appealing the verdict.
Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, expressed satisfaction with the ruling, stating, “E. Jean Carroll and I are gratified by today’s decision.”
The appeals court also dismissed Trump’s arguments that the trial was unfair because the jury heard testimony from two other women who accused him of sexual misconduct.
Businesswoman Jessica Leeds alleged Trump groped her on a plane in the late 1970s, while former People magazine writer Natasha Stoynoff said Trump forcibly kissed her at Mar-a-Lago in 2005. The court deemed these testimonies relevant in establishing a pattern of behaviour corroborating Carroll’s allegations.
Trump also objected to the inclusion of the Access Hollywood tape, where he boasted about forcing himself on women. However, the court found this evidence “highly relevant” and consistent with the claims made by Carroll and other witnesses.
Additionally, the court rejected Trump’s argument that evidence of billionaire Reid Hoffman, a Democratic critic, funding Carroll’s lawsuit should have been admitted, stating that it had “little probative value.”
This ruling comes as Carroll’s other legal actions against Trump continue, including an $83.3 million defamation verdict from January 2024 related to a separate statement made by Trump in 2019. Judge Lewis Kaplan, who oversaw both cases, also denied Trump’s requests to exclude evidence in that trial.
Legal experts note that Trump may attempt to take the case to the US Supreme Court, but it remains unclear if it will hear the appeal.
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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