An appellate court in New York has upheld a $5 million verdict against President Donald Trump, ruling that he sexually abused and defamed former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll. Two Trump-appointed judges dissented, arguing that the Access Hollywood tape should not have been used as evidence.
The ruling comes after a full panel of judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit declined to hear Trump’s arguments, leaving him with the option to take the case to the Supreme Court. The decision relates to a lawsuit brought by Carroll, a former Elle columnist, who claimed in her book that Trump raped her in a department store dressing room three decades ago.
Carroll sued Trump, a one-time New York real estate mogul, twice after she released her book in 2019, which claimed Trump raped her during a brief encounter with him in a department store dressing room in the 1990s. Trump vigorously denied the claims, saying he had never met Carroll, that she was not his ‘type,’ and that she fabricated the incident to sell books. His vocal and repeated criticisms and denials led to Carroll’s defamation allegations.
The appellate court’s decision on Friday relates to a lawsuit Carroll brought in 2022, in which a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation and awarded Carroll $5 million. The jury also found Trump did not rape Carroll, as Carroll had alleged. Carroll brought a second lawsuit right after her book release, alleging Trump defamed her in the aftermath of the book being published. A jury in that lawsuit awarded Carroll $83 million. Trump is also appealing that decision.
Two Trump-appointed judges on the appellate court dissented and said they would have granted Trump’s request and reconsidered the verdict. The pair of judges said the Access Hollywood tape, in which Trump lewdly spoke about making passes at women, did not offer relevant context in relation to Carroll’s claims. The tape functioned as ‘propensity evidence,’ which is typically inadmissible in court, the judges said.