Setback for Trump: US court upholds $5-mn verdict in sexual assault case

In a setback to US President-elect Donald Trump, a federal appeals court has upheld a jury’s finding that he sexually abused a columnist in the 1990s as well as the $5 million award that the jury granted her for defamation and sexual abuse.

Magazine columnist E Jean Carroll testified at a 2023 trial that Trump violently attacked her in spring 1996 after they playfully entered an upscale department store’s dressing room.

Trump has repeatedly denied that the attack ever happened and skipped the trial. But he briefly testified at a follow-up defamation trial, resulting in an $83.3 million award earlier this year.

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The second trial resulted from his comments as then-President in 2019 after Carroll made the accusations public in a memoir.

Second Circuit court’s ruling

In September, both Carroll (81) and Trump (78) attended oral arguments by the Second Circuit court that delivered the verdict on Monday (December 30).

“We conclude that Mr Trump has not demonstrated that the district court erred in any of the challenged rulings,” the Second Circuit court said.

Earlier, a three-judge panel of the appeals court rejected claims by Trump’s lawyers that the trial judge’s decisions, including one allowing two other women who had accused Trump of sexually abusing them to testify, had spoiled the trial.

The trial judge also 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”.

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What both sides said

Steven Cheung, a Trump spokesperson, said in a statement that Trump was elected by voters by “an overwhelming mandate” and the people now demand “an immediate end to the political weaponisation” of the justice system and all the “witch hunts”, including the “Democrat-funded Carroll hoax”, which they would continue to appeal against.

Roberta Kaplan, a lawyer who represented Carroll during the trial, 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.”

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A timeline of the case

The first jury awarded Carroll $5 million after concluding in May 2023 that Trump sexually abused her and defamed her with comments in October 2022.

In January, a second jury awarded Carroll an additional $83.3 million in damages for comments Trump made about her while he was president, finding that they were defamatory. That jury was instructed by the judge to accept the first jury’s finding that Trump had sexually abused Carroll.

Trump testified for under three minutes at the second trial and was not permitted to challenge conclusions reached by the May 2023 jury.

(With agency inputs)