An appeals court has denied former President Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn a $5 million verdict in a defamation and sexual abuse case brought by writer E. Jean Carroll.
The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals announced on Monday that Trump failed to demonstrate that the district court made any errors in its rulings. “Trump 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,” the court stated in its opinion.
In May 2023, a federal jury in New York awarded Carroll $5 million in damages after finding that Trump sexually abused her in a department store in the mid-1990s and later defamed her when he publicly denied the allegations in 2022.
Trump appealed the verdict, arguing that the district court had made several evidentiary errors that warranted a new trial. However, the appeals court rejected these claims, upholding the original verdict.
Carroll, a former magazine columnist, first made her allegations public in 2019 when an excerpt from her book was published. She claimed that Trump sexually assaulted her in a Manhattan department store and subsequently defamed her by denying the incident and disparaging her character.
The legal battle between Carroll and Trump continues, with other defamation claims related to statements he made in 2019 still pending.
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U.S. court denies Trump's bid to overturn E. Jean Carroll verdict
cgtn.com
