A federal appeals court on Friday rejected another attempt by President Donald Trump to review a $5 million judgment against him for sexually abusing and then defaming E. Jean Carroll.
A three-judge panel from the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Trump in December. Trump asked the full court to reconsider, but the court rejected the plea Friday. The president’s next stop, should he wish, would be the Supreme Court.
Carroll, a former magazine columnist, alleged that Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York in the 1990s and then defamed her when he denied her claim, said she wasn’t his type and suggested she made up the story to boost sales of her book.
The jury found Trump liable for battery based on the sexual assault claim, that he should pay about $2 million in damages to Carroll for the civil battery claim and that he should pay her nearly $3 million in damages for successfully proving her defamation claim against him.
While the jury found that Trump sexually abused her, sufficient to hold him liable for battery, the jury did not find that Carroll proved he raped her.
Trump denied all claims brought against him by Carroll and called the civil trial verdict “a total disgrace.”
“The American People are supporting President Trump in historic numbers, 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,” a Trump legal spokesman said in a statement Friday.
Carroll and her attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said they are “pleased” with the ruling. “Although President Trump continues to try every possible maneuver to challenge the findings of two separate juries, those efforts have failed. He remains liable for sexual assault and defamation,” they said in a statement.
Two judges dissented from the order, agreeing with Trump’s argument that the use of the Access Hollywood tape in which he bragged that stars can “do anything” to women and other evidence of alleged prior bad acts was prejudicial.
“The result was a jury verdict based on impermissible character evidence and few reliable facts,” wrote Judges Steven Menashi and Michael Park, both of whom were appointed by Trump in his first term.
CNN’s Paula Reid contributed to this report.
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