crime
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a jury's finding in a civil case that Donald Trump sexually assaulted a columnist within the dressing room of a luxury department store within the mid-Nineteen Nineties.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a written opinion upholding the $5 million award that the Manhattan jury awarded E. Jean Carroll on defamation and sexual abuse charges.
The magazine's longtime columnist had testified at a 2023 trial that Trump turned a friendly encounter within the spring of 1996 right into a violent attack after they playfully entered the shop's dressing room.
Trump skipped the trial after repeatedly denying that the attack ever happened. But he testified briefly earlier this 12 months in a follow-up defamation trial that ended with an $83.3 million award. The second trial stemmed from comments made by then-President Trump in 2019 after Carroll first made the allegations public in his memoir.
In its ruling, a three-judge panel of the appeals court rejected claims by Trump's lawyers that trial Judge Lewis A. Kaplan made several decisions that thwarted the trial, including his decision to confess two other women who had accused Trump of marrying them statements about having been sexually abused.
The judge also allowed the jury to look at the infamous “Access Hollywood” video wherein Trump bragged in 2005 about grabbing women's genitals because when someone is a star, “you can do anything.”
“We conclude that Mr. Trump has not established that the district court erred in any of the impugned rulings,” the 2nd Circuit said. “Furthermore, he has failed to establish that any alleged error or combination of alleged errors affected his essential rights necessary to justify a new trial.”
In September, each Carroll, 81, and Trump, 78, attended oral arguments within the 2nd Circuit.
Steven Cheung, a Trump spokesman, said in an announcement that Trump was elected by voters who “cast an overwhelming mandate, and they are calling for an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system and a rapid end to all witch hunts, including…” Democratic-sponsored Carroll Hoax, which stays under appeal.”
Roberta Kaplan, an attorney who represented Carroll throughout the trial and will not be related to the judge, said in an announcement: “Both E. Jean Carroll and I are pleased with today’s decision. We thank the Second Circuit for its careful consideration of the parties’ arguments.”
The first jury present 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 a further $83.3 million in damages for comments Trump made about her while he was president, finding them defamatory. That jury had been instructed by the judge to simply accept the primary jury's finding that Trump had sexually abused Carroll.
Trump testified for lower than three minutes within the second trial and was not allowed to challenge the jury's May 2023 conclusions. Still, he was animated within the courtroom throughout the two-week trial and jurors could hear him grumbling in regards to the case.
image credit : www.boston.com