NEW YORK — A recent ruling from a federal appeals court maintains the $5 million civil judgment against former President Donald Trump. This follows a lawsuit which alleges Trump sexually assaulted writer E. Jean Carroll within a Manhattan department store in the 1990s.
In a decisive 8-2 vote, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request for the entire appellate court to re-examine arguments contesting the jury’s conclusion. The jury had found that Trump sexually abused journalist E. Jean Carroll and defamed her with remarks made in October 2022.
Carroll, during a 2023 trial, recounted how Trump transformed a benign encounter in the spring of 1996 into a violent attack after they entered a store’s dressing room. A panel of three appellate judges upheld the January verdict, dismissing Trump’s allegations that trial Judge Lewis A. Kaplan interfered with the trial’s integrity. These allegations included allowing two other accusers to testify against Trump.
The accusers from both the 1970s and 2005 described Trump engaging in similar misconduct. Trump consistently denied these claims. In their opinion, four judges wrote against rehearing the case, stating that revisiting the matter would misuse the intended process. They further noted that such reconsideration is warranted only for issues of “exceptional importance” or conflicts with previously established legal precedent.
All four judges, Myrna Pérez, Eunice C. Lee, Beth Robinson, and Sarah A.L. Merriam, were appointed under President Joe Biden, who ran against Trump in the 2020 election. Two judges, Steven J. Menashi and Michael H. Park, both Trump appointees, dissented. They argued the trial was flawed with many unjust evidentiary rulings that led to a verdict based more on character judgments than solid facts. There remains uncertainty, they claimed, about whether the verdict would have been the same if standard evidentiary rules had been applied.
Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, expressed satisfaction with the court’s decision. “E. Jean Carroll is very pleased with today’s decision,” she highlighted, emphasizing that Trump’s continuous efforts to challenge two separate jury conclusions have been unsuccessful. Trump continues to be accountable for charges of sexual assault and defamation.
Trump did not attend the original trial, categorically denying any wrongdoing. He made a brief testimony at a subsequent defamation trial that culminated in an $83.3 million compensation. This second case stemmed from comments made by then-President Trump in 2019 after Carroll made her allegations public through a memoir.
Judge Kaplan led both trials and instructed the second jury to accept the initial jury’s findings regarding the assault. Appeals in the case are scheduled for discussion on June 24.
It is the practice not to disclose identities in sexual assault cases unless the victims themselves come forward, as Carroll has publicly done.