On Monday, a federal appeals court upheld a New York jury’s verdict, ordering President-elect Donald Trump to pay former Elle magazine advice columnist E. Jean Carroll $5 million in damages for alleged sexual abuse.
Carroll claimed Trump sexually abused her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in 1996, and a jury found him civilly liable in the case. In a separate defamation case earlier this year, a jury awarded Carroll $83 million in damages for statements made by Trump.
New York law previously allowed a one-year window to file sexual assault cases, but in 2022 the state passed the Adult Survivors Act, which allowed a one-year period to file cases that had otherwise already exceeded statutory limitations.
Carroll, along with over 2,500 others, filed under the ASA during the one-year period in New York, according to The Associated Press.
Trump has repeatedly denied he sexually abused Carroll, maintaining, “It never happened.”
Most recently, Trump had asserted he was entitled to a new trial, arguing that “the cumulative effect of the claimed errors affected his substantial rights,” per the case.
However, the court did not find “any claimed error or combination of errors in the district’s evidentiary rulings” that “affected” Trump’s substantial rights.
Further, the court said that Trump had “not carried his burden to show that any claimed error or combination of claimed errors affected his substantial rights as required to warrant a new trial.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan responded to the verdict in a statement, saying she and Carroll are “gratified by today’s decision.” She added, “We thank the Second Circuit for its careful consideration of the parties’ arguments.”
Trump’s spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement, Americans “demand an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system and a swift dismissal of all of the Witch Hunts, including the Democrat-funded Carroll Hoax, which will continue to be appealed,” per the Epoch Times.
