Donald Trump’s bid to overturn a $5 million verdict in a defamation and sexual abuse case involving writer E. Jean Carroll was dismissed by a federal appeals court on December 30, 2024. This ruling represents another significant legal defeat for the President-elect.
Three 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges in Manhattan, New York City, unanimously upheld the civil verdict issued on May 9, 2023. The appeals court ruled that U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan committed no errors in allowing other women to testify about alleged similar incidents with Trump, or in allowing jurors to watch the “Access Hollywood” tape where Trump bragged about grabbing women’s genitals.
The origin of the lawsuit lies in Carroll’s claim that Trump sexually assaulted her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York City in 1996. Evidence presented during the trial included testimony from two friends to whom Carroll confided shortly after the incident, as well as testimony from other women with similar allegations against Trump.
The jury awarded Carroll $2 million in compensatory damages for sexual abuse and $3 million for defamation, following Trump’s dismissal of her allegations as a “complete con job” and “a hoax and a lie” on his Truth Social platform. While the jury did not find Trump liable for rape under New York’s specific legal definition, the appeals court noted that they had “implicitly found” that Trump had digitally raped Carroll.
During the trial, Jessica Leeds testified that Trump had groped her on an airplane in the 1970s, and Natasha Stoynoff, a former writer for People magazine, stated that Trump had forcibly kissed her during a 2005 interview at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
The appeals court dismissed Trump’s objections regarding the evidence and testimony presented at trial. The three-judge panel decided that Judge Kaplan’s decisions were correct and that Trump had not demonstrated that any errors had infringed on his substantial rights.
Carroll made her accusations public in 2019. Although the statute of limitations for criminal charges had passed, a 2022 New York law, the Adult Survivors Act, temporarily allowed victims of sexual abuse to file civil lawsuits, irrespective of when the alleged abuse took place.
This $5 million verdict is separate from a January 2024 defamation case in which another New York jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $83.3 million. This larger award resulted from the jury’s conclusion that Carroll’s reputation as an advice columnist suffered significantly when Trump repeatedly labeled her a liar after she aired her accusations in 2019.
Trump’s legal team asserted that the damages were “grossly excessive” and claimed judicial bias. However, the appeals court disagreed, finding no merit in Trump’s arguments that his statements were merely political speech protected by the First Amendment.
Steven Cheung, Trump’s political adviser, responded to the ruling by stating that the American people had provided Trump with an “overwhelming mandate” and called for an “immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system.”
Trump’s legal team may consider further appeals to the full 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court. This ruling comes after Trump’s recent $15 million settlement with ABC News over a separate defamation claim related to the Carroll Case.
