Appeals court upholds jury's $5M award, sexual abuse finding against Donald Trump
Editor's Note: The video above originally aired on May 9, 2024
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a jury’s finding in a civil case that Donald Trump sexually abused a columnist in an upscale department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a written opinion upholding the $5 million award that the Manhattan jury granted to E. Jean Carroll for defamation and sexual abuse.
The longtime magazine columnist had testified at a 2023 trial that Trump turned a friendly encounter in spring 1996 into a violent attack after they playfully entered the store’s dressing room.
Trump skipped the trial after repeatedly denying the attack ever happened. He has expressed regret he was not there.
But he briefly testified at a follow-up trial earlier this year that resulted in an $83.3 million award. The second trial resulted from comments then-President Trump made in 2019 after Carroll first made the accusations publicly in a memoir.
Trump’s lawyers argued the jury’s verdict should have been tossed because evidence was allowed at trial that should have been excluded and other evidence was excluded that should have been permitted.