Trump Fails to Win New Trial in Carroll Sex-Abuse Case (1)

A federal appeals court denied Donald Trump’s request for a new trial in New York writer E. Jean Carroll’s sexual abuse lawsuit, dealing a blow to the president-elect as he seeks to put his legal woes behind him before taking office.

The US Court of Appeals for Second Circuit in Manhattan on Monday rejected Trump’s argument that jurors last year shouldn’t have heard the so-called Access Hollywood tape or testimony from one of two other women besides Carroll who also accused him of sexual assault.

That evidence helped to “establish a repeated, idiosyncratic pattern of conduct consistent with what Ms. Carroll alleged,” the court said. “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 president-elect could now appeal to the US Supreme Court.

“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,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement.

Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan said in statement: “Both E. Jean Carroll and I are gratified by today’s decision. We thank the Second Circuit for its careful consideration of the parties’ arguments.”

Trump was found liable by a Manhattan jury in May 2023 following a trial in which he declined to testify. The panel of six men and three women awarded Carroll $5 million in damages for the abuse claim, as well as a claim of defamation.

Trump is separately appealing another verdict against him in a defamation suit brought by Carroll that resulted in an $83.3 million damage award over comments he made about her from the White House during his first term. Arguments in that appeal haven’t yet taken place.

Carroll, a former advice columnist for Elle magazine, went public in 2019 with her claim that Trump sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in the 1990s. She sued in 2022 under a New York law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on assault claims that are decades old.

Trump argued that US District Judge Lewis Kaplan should not have allowed the jury to hear from Jessica Leeds, who testified that Trump assaulted her in 1979 on a flight to New York while she sat next to him in first class. The appeals court rejected Trump’s argument that his alleged conduct wasn’t a crime at that time.

Trump’s lawyers also argued that jurors shouldn’t have heard the so-called Access Hollywood tape. The 2005 hot-mic recording captures Trump making unguarded remarks about kissing women without consent and boasting that famous men can get away with groping women. Defense lawyers had argued that the tape was irrelevant to Carroll’s claims and could prejudice the jury against Trump.

(Updates with comment from Trump spokesman.)

To contact the reporter on this story:
Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Anthony Lin at alin364@bloomberg.net

© 2024 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Used with permission.