In a recent legal development, former President Donald Trump has been dealt a blow as a federal appeals court upheld a New York jury's verdict in the E. Jean Carroll sexual abuse and defamation case.
The jury had previously found Trump liable for sexually assaulting Carroll in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman, a high-end Manhattan department store, in 1996. The jury, consisting of six men and three women, also determined that Trump had defamed Carroll by labeling her a liar, leading to a total damage award of $5 million.
According to the Daily Mail, the appeals court stated on Monday that Trump "has not demonstrated that the district court erred in any of the challenged rulings." The court cited evidence, including Trump's boastful comments about his sexual prowess on an 'Access Hollywood' video that emerged during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, as establishing a "repeated, idiosyncratic pattern of conduct" consistent with Carroll's allegations. The court further 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."
This decision is a setback for Trump, who has labeled the case as the "greatest witch hunt of all time" and criticized the original jury's verdict as a "disgrace." In another civil case that Trump is currently appealing, he was ordered to pay Carroll a staggering $83.3 million for defamation after he publicly denied sexually abusing her. This latest ruling from the appeals court arrives as Trump's other legal battles have been unraveling since his reelection in November.
Trump's legal woes from the past few years may not be entirely resolved by the time he takes the oath of office on January 20th, but each case will be well on its way to being settled. "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," Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement.
In September, Trump made an appearance at the federal appeals court in New York as his lawyers sought to overturn the Carroll decision. The former President's motorcade was seen arriving at the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, where attorneys presented oral arguments before a panel of three judges all of whom were appointed by Democratic presidents. Trump, donning his signature navy suit and red tie, entered the courtroom and walked straight past Carroll, who was seated in the front row of the public gallery.
Trump's attorneys argued that the civil court had made a mistake by allowing the jury to consider certain evidence. This included the notorious Access Hollywood tape, in which Trump can be heard making lewd comments about women, as well as testimony from two other women who had accused him of sexual misconduct decades ago. Trump's attorney John Sauer referred to the case as "a textbook example of implausible allegations being propped up by highly inflammatory, inadmissible" evidence. He also reiterated Trump's assertion that he had never "even met" Carroll.
Addressing the panel, Sauer described the lawsuit as a "quintessential 'he said, she said' case" that lacked physical evidence, eyewitnesses, and police records. Circuit Judge Denny Chin interrupted Sauer's argument, noting it's "very hard to overturn a jury verdict based on evidentiary rulings" and asked him why the verdict should be discarded. Sauer questioned US District Judge Lewis Kaplan's decision to allow the Access Hollywood tape and testimony from Jessica Leeds, who accused Trump of groping her on a plane in the late 1970s, to be heard as evidence.
In response to Sauer's arguments before the appeals panel, Carroll's attorney Roberta Kaplan defended the evidence presented at the civil trial. She insisted that Leeds's testimony was admissible under a law that was in effect in 1979, and therefore the incident would have been considered a crime. The lawyer also argued that Trump had a "pattern" of attacking women that begins with "pleasantly chatting" them up before suddenly "pouncing" on them and subsequently trashing the women when he is accused.
Following the original civil trial in May, jurors awarded Carroll, a former Elle magazine advice columnist, $2.02 million and $2.98 million for her sexual abuse and defamation claims respectively. Trump was separately found liable for defaming Carroll in another trial that took place in January. A different jury in that civil trial ordered him to pay Carroll $83.3 million for having defamed her and damaging her reputation.
Trump has maintained that he did not know Carroll, that she was "not my type," and that she fabricated her story to promote her memoir. In their appeal, Trump's lawyers claimed he could not receive a fair trial in New York. The former President alleged that Judge Lewis Kaplan "erred" in rulings during the May 2023 trial that "violated President Trump's rights". The filing stated: "The improper verdict in this case is a gross miscarriage of justice, backed by political operatives long opposed to President Trump and his politics, based on false and unsupported claims."
In other legal filings, Trump's lawyers claimed the attack on Carroll "never occurred". He accused her of inventing the claims due to her "significant political bias against him" and "turned her allegations against (Trump) into a lifestyle and sought to monetize her allegations as much as possible". Rather than being harmed by the claims, Carroll's standing has improved due to her media interviews, Trump's lawyers claimed.
Carroll's civil cases are separate from multiple criminal cases against the former U.S. President. He was found guilty in state court in New York for falsifying business records relating to a $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts earlier this year after a high-profile trial. He denied all the allegations.
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