A panel of a federal appeals court confirmed this Monday the verdict of a jury that finds the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, responsible for sexually abusing journalist E. Jean Carroll, as well as defaming her, and orders him to pay five million dollars.
“Upon review, we conclude that Mr. Trump has not demonstrated that the district court erred in any of the challenged rulings,” the panel determined.
Trump’s legal team has been trying in recent months to overturn a nine-member civil court verdict that found Trump liable for defaming and sexually abusing writer Carroll and that ordered the Republican politician to pay $5 million. of dollars.
At the May 2023 trial, those nine members heard evidence and testimony related to the prosecution of Carroll, who alleged that in the mid-1990s, Trump sexually abused her in a store fitting room and defamed her after she she made the story public.
Trump, who won the presidential election this year, continues to deny these facts and has repeated on several occasions that he does not even know Carroll.
This year, the Republican mogul faced a second trial with Carroll for defamation for continuing to deny his story, which ended in an $83 million judgment for Trump.
Trump’s legal team continues to appeal that verdict, but today’s decision is a blow to his defense, as he relied on the previous sentence for sexual abuse.
In his appeal against the first trial, Trump demanded that he be granted a new trial because, according to his legal team, the jury heard improper testimony.
In September, Trump’s lawyer told the panel the case was a “he said, she said” matter, noting that the alleged evidence was “implausible.”
The mogul’s lawyer also pointed out that Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff, who testified about alleged abuses by Trump that bore similarities to Carroll’s accusations, should not have been allowed to take the stand.
The panel today rejected all of those arguments and determined that the testimony of the two other women who accused Trump of sexual misconduct was legitimately admitted into evidence, as well as the recording in which Trump is heard bragging about having sexually grabbed women without your permission.
The appeals court panel wrote that the combination of the women’s testimony and the audio recording showed that a jury could reasonably infer that Trump “engaged in similar behavior toward other women, a pattern of abrupt and nonconsensual physical contact toward women.” that I barely knew.”
“Mr. Trump’s statements on the tape along with the testimony of Leeds and Stoynoff establish a repeated and idiosyncratic pattern of conduct consistent with what Carroll claimed,” the panel found.
