NEW YORK: A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a jury’s finding in a civil case that Donald Trump sexually abused a columnist in an upscale department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.
The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals issued a written opinion upholding the $5 million award that the Manhattan jury granted to E. Jean Carroll for defamation and sexual abuse.
A three-judge panel ruled unanimously Monday that the trial judge did not violate Trump’s rights when he allowed Carroll to present evidence suggesting Trump had committed other sexual assaults. That evidence included Trump’s comments on the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape as well as testimony from two other women who accused Trump of sexual assault.
The longtime magazine columnist had testified at a 2023 trial that Trump turned a friendly encounter in spring 1996 into a violent attack after they playfully entered the store’s dressing room.
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 his decision to allow 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.”
The jury could reasonably infer … that Mr. Trump engaged in similar conduct with other women — a pattern of abrupt, non-consensual, and physical advances on women he barely knew,” the panel wrote in a 77-page opinion.
“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.
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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.
Trump testified for under three minutes at the second trial and was not permitted to challenge conclusions reached by the May 2023 jury.
The ruling is a significant legal setback as Trump prepares for his inauguration next month. Trump may appeal the ruling to the full bench of the Manhattan-based 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals or to the Supreme Court. Aides indicated he would continue to appeal what spokesman Steven Cheung deemed the “Democrat-funded Carroll Hoax.”
The ruling comes on the heels of a legal victory for the president-elect in a related defamation case that Trump brought against ABC News and anchor George Stephanopoulos, who said on the air that the civil jury found Trump had raped Carroll. ABC settled that case and agreed to pay $15 million to Trump’s presidential library.
Carroll accused Trump of raping her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s and sued him for civil damages. In May 2023, a federal jury did not find Trump liable for rape but did find him liable for sexual abuse and defamation, and it ordered Trump to pay Carroll $5 million.
