A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a jury verdict ordering President-elect Donald Trump to pay $5 million to author E. Jean Carroll for sexually assaulting and defaming her.
A New York jury found last year after a nine-day civil trial that the former president sexually assaulted Carroll in a Manhattan department store in 1996.
Trump was ordered to pay $2 million for sexual assault and $3 million for defaming Carroll, a former advice columnist for Elle magazine.
Trump denied the allegations and appealed the verdict on the grounds that two other women who said Trump had sexually assaulted them should also not have been allowed to testify.
A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed.
“We conclude that Mr. Trump has not demonstrated that the district court erred in any of the challenged decisions,” he said.
“Further, he has not met his burden to show that any claimed error or combination of claimed errors has affected his rights sufficiently to warrant a new trial.”
Carroll was awarded $83 million by another jury in a separate case brought against Trump.
He has appealed that decision and Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said the Republican will file another appeal against the $5 million damages awarded in the sexual assault and defamation case.
“The American people have re-elected President Trump with an overwhelming mandate,” Cheung said in a statement.
“They demand an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system and the immediate dismissal of all witch hunts, including the Democrat-funded Carroll hoax, which will continue to be appealed,” he said.
Two federal cases brought against Trump by special counsel Jack Smith since he won the presidential election on November 5 have been dismissed.
Trump was accused of mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House and trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election, but Smith dropped the cases under the Justice Department’s policy of not prosecuting a sitting president. Gave.
Trump was convicted in New York in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Judge Juan Merchan rejected a request to overturn the recently elected president’s conviction, but postponed sentencing indefinitely.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
