The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has decisively ruled against former President Donald Trump's attempt to overturn a lower court's decision, which had awarded $5 million to E. Jean Carroll in a sexual abuse lawsuit. This latest development, announced on Friday, reinforces the jury's verdict and maintains the monetary judgment against Trump.
E. Jean Carroll, a former Elle columnist now aged 81, has accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in Manhattan, an incident she alleges occurred around 1996. Furthermore, Carroll has claimed that Trump defamed her via a post on Truth Social in 2022, where he labeled her accusation a hoax. In May 2023, a jury found Trump liable for sexual assault and defamation. However, they stopped short of upholding Carroll's initial allegation of rape.
Trump's legal team sought a reconsideration of the trial's outcome, contending that the trial judge had erred in allowing the jury to view a 2005 Access Hollywood video wherein Trump made controversial remarks about his sexual behavior. Additionally, they challenged the admission of testimony from two other women who had made similar allegations against Trump.
Despite Trump's efforts, the en banc panel, consisting of all 11 judges of the Second Circuit, maintained the original ruling. However, the decision was not unanimous, with two judges appointed by Trump himself, Steven Menashi and Michael Park, dissenting. They argued that the infamous Access Hollywood tape constituted improper "propensity" evidence and that its admittance at trial was erroneous.
The other women who testified included businesswoman Jessica Leeds, alleging Trump groped her on a plane in the late 1970s, and former People magazine writer Natasha Stoynoff, who claimed Trump forcibly kissed her at Mar-a-Lago in 2005. Trump has adamantly denied both of these additional claims.
Trump's legal woes continue as he also appeals an $83.3 million jury verdict from January 2024, which concluded that he had defamed Carroll by damaging her reputation in 2019 when he denied her sexual assault allegations. Citing a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that granted him broad criminal immunity, Trump's legal argument is that this should extend to civil immunity in Carroll's case as well.
In statements from 2019 and 2022, Trump vehemently denied Carroll's accusations, calling her "not my type" and alleging she concocted the story to sell a memoir. He may also be facing a third lawsuit from Carroll related to a Truth Social post in which he criticized the federal judge overseeing her trials and questioned Carroll's account of the incident.
In response to the appeals court's decision, Carroll's attorney, Roberta Kaplan, indicated that all legal options remain on the table for her client, leaving the door open for further litigation.
