The Federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has dismissed this Monday the appeal presented by the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, against the conviction for violence and defamation related to the and has ordered the tycoon to pay the 5 million dollars (4.8 million euros) established by the ruling. Trump could still appeal to the Supreme Court.
The New York Court, made up of three judges, has concluded that the president-elect has not sufficiently demonstrated any of the alleged errors in the process or that his rights had been affected, reasons for which he asked for a repeat trial. “With regard to arbitrariness (to which the appeal refers), we conclude that Mr. Trump has not demonstrated that the district court erred in any of the decisions that have been appealed,” the judges explained.
Trump’s legal team has been overturning the verdict of a nine-member New York jury that initially tried the case and concluded in 2023 that the Republican president was responsible for defamation and sexual abuse of writer and journalist Jean Carroll. in the fitting room of a Manhattan shopping center in the mid-1990s. The sentence was $5 million.
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 faced a second trial with the writer, who sued him for defamation for continuing to deny his story, which ended in an $83 million judgment for Trump.
“The American people have re-elected President Trump with overwhelming support: they demand an end to the weaponization of justice and a swift dismissal of all witch hunts, including the Democrat-funded Carroll hoax. It will continue to come back.” , explained the future White House Communications Director, Steven Cheung, once the Republican takes possession of the White House on January 20.
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, the president-elect of the United States demanded that he be granted a new trial because, according to his lawyers, the jury heard improper testimony. A lawyer for the mogul also noted 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 Donald Trump of sexual misconduct was legitimately admitted as evidence, as well as the recording in which the Republican 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 pattern of conduct consistent with what Carroll claimed,” the panel found.
