Trump suffers hammer blow in his appeal against $5 million E. Jean Carroll sex abuse case

A federal appeals court upheld a New York jury’s guilty verdict finding newly elected President Donald Trump liable in the sexual abuse and defamation case against E. Jean Carroll.

In May, the jury found that Trump had sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll — but there wasn’t enough evidence to say he raped her.

The panel of six men and three women also found that Trump injured advice columnist Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in Manhattan in 1996 and defamed her when he called her a liar and ordered him to pay a total of $5 million in damages.

They made their decision after just three hours of deliberation.

Trump has called the case the “greatest witch hunt of all time” and labeled the verdict a “disgrace.”

In September, Trump appeared before the federal appeals court in New York as his lawyers fought to overturn the verdict.

The former president’s motorcade was seen driving to the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, where lawyers made arguments before a panel of three judges – all appointed to the bench by Democratic presidents.

Dressed in his signature navy blue suit and bright red tie, Trump entered the courtroom and walked right past Carroll, who was sitting in the front row of the public gallery.

It is the first time that the presidential candidate has appeared in court since his assassination attempt in July. Security was tight and attendees had to pass through metal detectors upon arrival.

All telephones and other electronics were banned from the courtroom.

He challenged the May 2023 verdict that stemmed from his alleged encounter in the mid-1990s with Carroll, who alleged Trump sexually assaulted her in the dressing room of Bergdorf Goodman department store and later defamed her when he publicly denied her allegations.

His lawyers argued that the court erred by allowing certain evidence, such as the infamous Access Hollywood tape, in which Trump brags about grabbing women’s genitals, as well as testimony from other women who accused him decades ago of sexual misconduct.

In his two-minute rebuttal, Trump’s lawyer John Sauer called the case “a textbook example of implausible allegations supported by highly inflammatory and inadmissible” evidence.

He also repeated Trump’s claims from his testimony that the presidential candidate never “even met” Carroll.

Addressing the panel, Sauer called the lawsuit a “typical ‘he said, she said’ case” that lacked “physical evidence,” “eyewitnesses” and police records.

Judge Denny Chin interrupted Sauer’s argument, noting that it is “very difficult to overturn a jury verdict based on evidentiary statements” and asking him why the verdict should be overturned.

Sauer questioned U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan’s decision to allow into evidence the Access Hollywood tape and the testimony of Jessica Leeds, who accused Trump of groping her on a plane in the late 1970s.

He argued that the statute that would consider Trump’s alleged conduct a crime did not take effect until 15 years later.

But Judge Chin asked if Trump “put his hands up her skirt,” wouldn’t that count?

Sauer reiterated that Leeds’ evidence should have been excluded.

Judge Chin further pressed Sauer on the Access Hollywood tape, saying it was a “confession about a modus operandi.”

In response to Sauer’s arguments before the panel, Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan stood by the evidence presented at trial.

She maintained that Leeds’ testimony was admissible under a law in place in 1979, and therefore the incident would have been considered a crime, as the judge, Lewis Kaplan, concluded.

The lawyer also argued that Trump has a “pattern” of attacking women that starts with “nice chit-chat” before suddenly “jumping” on them and then trashing the women when accused.

She added that Trump had refused to testify or even attend the trial despite being given the opportunity.

A jury found Trump liable for sexually assaulting journalist Carroll in the mid-1990s.

Jurors awarded the former Elle magazine advice columnist $2.02 million and $2.98 million, respectively, for her sexual assault and defamation charges in a May 2023 verdict.

Trump was found separately liable for defaming Carroll in a second trial that took place in January this year, with a jury ordering him to pay her $83.3 million for defaming her in June 2019 and damaging her reputation after she had accused him of rape for the first time..

In both denials, Trump said he did not know Carroll, that she was “not my type,” and that she made up her story to promote her memoir.

In their appeal, filed in November, Trump’s lawyers argued he could not get a fair trial in New York.

The former president claimed Judge Kaplan “erred” during the May 2023 trial in rulings that “violated President Trump’s rights.”

The filing said: “The improper verdict in this case is a gross miscarriage of justice, supported by political operatives long opposed to President Trump and his policies, based on false and unsupported claims.”

In other legal filings, Trump’s lawyers claimed the attack on Carroll “never happened.”

He accused her of making up the claims because of her “significant political bias against him” and “turned her allegations against (Trump) into a lifestyle and tried to make as much money as possible from her allegations.”

Rather than being harmed by the claims, Carroll’s position has improved thanks to her media interviews, Trump’s lawyers argued.

Carroll’s cases are separate from multiple criminal cases against the former U.S. president.

He was found guilty in New York court of falsifying business records related to a $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

Trump was found guilty of all 34 charges earlier this year after a successful trial.

Trump denies all allegations.