Sexual Abuse Verdict: Donald Trump Loses Appeal Against E Jean Carroll
- Setback for President-elect as court upholds $5m sexual assault, defamation verdict
In what has been described as a legal setback for him, United States president-elect, Donald Trump has lost an appeal against the $5m verdict for sexually abusing and defaming the magazine writer, E Jean Carroll.
A three-judge panel at the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan rejected Trump’s arguments for a new trial, ruling that evidence including testimony from other accusers, as well as the infamous Access Hollywood tape that captured him boasting about how it was normal for him to “grab [women] by the pussy”, was properly admitted.
Trump was found liable in the May 2023 verdict for sexually assaulting Carroll in a New York department store dressing room in about 1996, 20 years before winning his first presidency, though the jury stopped short of calling the case a rape.
The verdict included $2.02m for sexual assault and $2.98m for defaming Carroll in an October 2022 social media post where he called her allegations a “hoax”.
The Federal Appeals Court while upholding the verdict said testimony from two other women who accused the President-elect of sexual misconduct, the businesswoman Jessica Leeds as well as the former People magazine writer Natasha Stoynoff, helped establish “a repeated, idiosyncratic pattern of conduct” that aligned with Carroll’s allegations.
“Mr Trump’s statements in the [Access Hollywood] tape, together with the testimony of Ms Leeds and Ms Stoynoff, establish a repeated, idiosyncratic pattern of conduct consistent with what Ms Carroll alleged,” the opinion stated.
Carroll’s Attorney, Roberta Kaplan said in an official statement released on the appeal that; “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 ruling follows a separate $83.3m defamation verdict that Carroll won against Trump in January over his 2019 denials of her allegations. Trump is appealing that verdict.
Trump has consistently denied all allegations, claiming he never met Carroll and that she was “not my type”.
However, the case is expected to continue even after Trump takes office for his second presidency on 20 January 2025, as the US supreme court ruled unanimously in 1997 that sitting presidents have no immunity from civil litigation over actions predating their official duties. – With The Guardian report
