Trump appeals sexual abuse verdict, victim considers new lawsuit
Former US President Donald Trump is appealing a $5 million award to a woman a jury says has been sexually assaulted.
Former US President Donald Trump is appealing the verdict of a New York jury that awarded a magazine columnist $5 million after the jurors concluded that Trump had sexually assaulted her in the 1990s and defamed her last October.
An appeal was filed Thursday in Manhattan federal court, the first step in a process that will move the civil case brought by writer E Jean Carroll against Trump to a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The notice was signed by Trump attorney Joe Tacopina, who said after Tuesday’s ruling he believed there were several strong grounds for an appeal.
The nine-member jury, after deliberating less than three hours, concluded that Carroll had failed to prove that it was more likely than not that Trump had raped her in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman store in the early spring of 1996. had been sexually abused.
It also said in its ruling that Trump defamed Carroll in a social media statement last October.
Carroll sued Trump in November, minutes after a temporary state law went into effect in New York allowing victims of sexual assaults to sue their abusers, even if the abuse occurred decades earlier.
Carroll is also considering new claims against Trump after he defamed her again on prime time television this week.
At a CNN-televised “town hall” rally, Trump repeated comments that formed the basis of Carroll’s successful defamation claim, telling news anchor Kaitlan Collins that Carroll was a “crazy job” fabricating the attack — which was met with whistles. and cheers by the Republican crowd.
During the interview, Trump insulted respected Manhattan federal court judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over his case.
When asked if she’s considering more legal action in light of Trump’s latest comments, Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, told the New York Daily News she was “thinking about it.”
Trump’s attorney, Tacopina, declined to comment on the possible new lawsuit.
In the appeal filed Thursday in the lower court where Judge Kaplan presided over the trial, Trump’s lawyers wrote that “It is hereby announced that Defendant Donald J. Trump will appeal” to the 2nd Circuit.
Tacopina said in an email about the appeal, “Judge Kaplan has already been overturned once in Carroll v Trump. We are confident that it will be twice after this appeal has been dealt with.
He was referring to Kaplan’s rejection of an attempt to substitute Trump for the United States as the defendant in an earlier defamation lawsuit brought by Carroll for statements made by Trump while he was president. The 2nd Circuit later ruled that Trump was a government employee for the lawsuit, but the appeal has not been fully resolved.
Trump’s verdict came back after a two-week trial in which Carroll testified that he had sexually assaulted her in the dressing room of the luxury department store after a light-hearted and flirty chance encounter that led them from the store’s entrance to the abandoned lingerie area on the sixth floor. brought floor. where Trump invited Carroll to help him buy a gift.
She first publicly disclosed her experience in a 2019 memoir while Trump was still president. She said his public backlash was so harsh it tarnished her reputation, cost her a 27-year job at Elle magazine and subjected her to vicious social media attacks from his followers.
Trump, who is currently a Republican candidate for president, did not attend the trial.