A federal appeals court on Friday rejected President Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the $5 million judgment in the sexual abuse and defamation case brought by former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll.
The decision came from the full Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which allowed a previous three-judge ruling from December to stand, keeping the jury award in place.
Carroll, now 81, accused Trump of assaulting her in a dressing room at Manhattan’s Bergdorf Goodman department store in the mid-1990s. She also claimed he defamed her in a 2022 Truth Social post by calling her allegations a hoax.
In May 2023, a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation, though jurors did not conclude that he committed rape as Carroll had alleged.
Trump’s legal team argued the trial was unfair because jurors were shown the 2005 Access Hollywood recording, in which Trump made controversial comments about women, along with testimony from two other accusers.
Two judges appointed by Trump dissented, arguing that some of the evidence should not have been admitted during the trial.
One witness, businesswoman Jessica Leeds, alleged Trump groped her during a flight in the late 1970s. Another, former People magazine writer Natasha Stoynoff, accused him of forcibly kissing her at Mar-a-Lago in 2005. Trump has denied both claims.
Trump is also appealing a separate $83.3 million defamation verdict issued in January 2024 over comments he made in 2019 denying Carroll’s accusations. His lawyers have argued that a recent Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity should protect him from civil liability as well.
In past statements, Trump denied Carroll’s allegations, saying she was “not my type” and accusing her of fabricating the story to promote her memoir.
Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, has also suggested another lawsuit remains possible over additional social media posts made by Trump criticizing Carroll and the judges involved in the cases.
