Appeals court upholds $5 million award in sexual abuse verdict against Donald Trump

NEW YORK (AP) — 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 U.S. 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.

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 by permitting 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.”

“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.

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. The appeal of that verdict has not yet been heard.

Carroll testified during both trials that her life as an Elle magazine columnist was spoiled by Trump’s public comments, which she said motivated some people to send her death threats and leave her fearful to leave the upstate New York cabin where she lives.

Trump testified for under three minutes at the second trial and was not permitted to challenge conclusions reached by the May 2023 jury. Still, he was animated in the courtroom throughout the two-week trial, and jurors could hear him grumbling about the case.

During appeals arguments in September, Trump lawyer D. John Sauer said testimony from witnesses who recalled Carroll telling them about the 1996 encounter with Trump immediately afterward was improper because the witnesses had “egregious bias” against Trump.

And the attorney said the judge also should have excluded the testimony of the two women who said Trump committed similar acts of sex abuse against them in the 1970s and in 2005. Trump has denied those allegations too.

The 2nd Circuit wrote: “In each of the three encounters, Mr. Trump engaged in an ordinary conversation with a woman he barely knew, then abruptly lunged at her in a semi-public place and proceeded to kiss and forcefully touch her without her consent. The acts are sufficiently similar to show a pattern.”

It said the “Access Hollywood” tape was “directly corroborative” of the testimony by the women of the pattern of behavior they experienced.

The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Carroll has done.