U.S. Court Of Appeals Rejects Trump’s Appeal Of $5M Judgement Against Him

Although the opinion from the three-judge panel was unsigned, it indicated that Trump and his lawyers failed to prove their case.

President-elect Donald Trump sought to overturn a $5 million judgment against him regarding the sexual abuse and subsequent defamation of E. Jean Carroll. However, on Dec. 30, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected Trump’s call for a new trial.

According to The New York Times, Trump’s lawyers tried to argue that a lower Manhattan court made a mistake by allowing two women to testify in the Carroll trial that he had also sexually assaulted them.

They also argued that the Manhattan court should not have let Caroll’s counsel play a recording of the “Access Hollywood” conversation in which Trump bragged about grabbing women by the genitals.

Although the opinion from the three-judge panel was unsigned, it indicated that Trump and his lawyers failed to prove their case.

“Mr. Trump has not demonstrated that the district court erred in any of the challenged rulings,” the ruling read.

The ruling continued, “Mr. Trump’s statements in the tape, together with the testimony of Ms. Leeds and Ms. Stoynoff (detailed above), establish a repeated, idiosyncratic pattern of conduct consistent with what Ms. Carroll alleged. In each of the three encounters, Mr. Trump engaged in an ordinary conversation with a woman he barely knew, then abruptly lunged at her in a semi-public place and proceeded to kiss and forcefully touch her without her consent. The acts are sufficiently similar to show a pattern or “recurring modus operandi.”

All of the judges are Democratic appointees; Judge Denny Chin and Judge Susan Carney were Obama appointees, and Judge Myrna Pérez is an appointee of President Joe Biden.

Jean Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, said in a statement that she and her client were thankful that the court upheld the ruling in their favor.

“Both E. Jean Carroll and I are gratified by today’s decision,” Kaplan told the New York Times. “We thank the Second Circuit for its careful consideration of the parties’ arguments.”

Trump spokesman Steven Cheung politicized the court‘s decision in his statement and seemed to claim that Carroll’s lawsuit was without merit.

“The American People have re-elected President Trump with an overwhelming mandate, and they 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,” Cheung said.

According to The Washington Post, Trump could ask the court to hear the appeal again, this time with the full complement of judges on hand for this appeal, or Trump’s lawyers could take their case all the way to the Supreme Court.

In the second, more expensive, judgment against Trump, that set of New York jurors found that Trump defamed Carroll with malice for years by calling her a liar, and due to that pattern of behavior, Trump was determined to owe her over $83 million by the court.

After the verdict was reached, Carroll framed her victory as a victory for every woman who has had to suffer because she was not believed when she asserted that she was a victim of sexual assault.

“Today, the world finally knows the truth,” Carroll said. “This victory is not just for me but for every woman who has suffered because she was not believed.”