By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a $5 million verdict E. Jean Carroll won against Donald Trump when a jury found the US president-elect responsible for sexually assaulting and later defaming the former magazine columnist.
The decision was made by a three-judge panel of the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan.
The May 2023 ruling stemmed from a circa 1996 incident in a fitting room at Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan, where Carroll said Trump had raped her, and an October 2022 Truth Social post in which Trump denied Carroll’s claim as a hoax.
Although jurors in federal court in Manhattan did not find that Trump committed rape, they awarded the former Elle magazine advice columnist $2.02 million for sexual assault and $2.98 million for defamation.
Another jury ordered Trump in January to pay Carroll $83.3 million for defamation and damage to her reputation in June 2019, when he first dismissed her rape lawsuit.
In both denials, Trump said he did not know Carroll, that she was “not my type” and that she made up the rape claim to promote her memoir. He appealed the $83.3 million judgment.
Trump’s lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Carroll’s attorney did not immediately respond to a similar request.
Carroll’s cases continue despite Trump winning a second four-year term in the White House on Nov. 5.
In 1997, in a case involving former President Bill Clinton, the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled that sitting presidents do not have immunity from civil suits in federal court for actions that precede and are unrelated to their official duties as president.
Trump’s lawyers argued that the $5 million judgment should be thrown out because the judge, a U.S. District Judge Lewis (JO:) Kaplan, should not have allowed jurors to hear testimony from two other women who accused Trump of sexual misconduct.
One, businesswoman Jessica Leeds, said Trump groped her on a plane in the late 1970s. Another, former People magazine writer Natasha Stoynoff, said Trump forcibly kissed her at his Mar-a-Lago estate in 2005.
Trump’s lawyers also said the trial judge should not have allowed jurors to watch a 2005 “Access Hollywood” video in which Trump graphically bragged about forcing himself on women.
But the appeals court said Trump failed to prove that Kaplan was wrong or that any errors warranted a new trial.
Judge Kaplan also oversaw the trial, which resulted in an $83.3 million verdict.
