NEW YORK, June 13 – Donald Trump has failed to convince a federal appeals court to revisit the $5 million judgment awarded to E. Jean Carroll following the conclusion that he sexually abused and defamed her.
The split Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan upheld the December 30 ruling in favor of Carroll on Friday.
Carroll, now 81, accused Trump in an October 2022 Truth Social post of assaulting her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in Manhattan around 1996, asserting that he labelled her claims a hoax.
In May 2023, a jury determined that Trump sexually assaulted Carroll and defamed her with his denials, although they did not find evidence that he raped her.
In his appeal, Trump allegedly stumbled by bringing up a 2005 “Access Hollywood” video that portrayed his sexual behavior, in addition to referencing inflammatory claims made by two other women regarding their own experiences with him.
One businesswoman, Jessica Lees, claimed that Trump approached her on a plane in the late 1970s. Another former People Magazine writer, Natasha Stoinoff, accused him of forcing her to kiss him in 2005 at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Trump has denied these allegations.
On a separate note, Trump, who recently celebrated his 79th birthday, is also pursuing an $83.3 million claim against a judge’s ruling from January 2024 regarding his slander of Carroll, alongside the damaging comments he made about her in June 2019.
He argues that a U.S. Supreme Court ruling from last July provides him with significant legal immunity against Carroll’s civil claims.
In his past denials of Carroll’s accusations in 2019 and 2022, Trump stated that she was “not my type” and suggested her allegations were crafted to promote her memoirs.
