The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has dismissed President-elect Donald Trump's effort to overturn the verdict in a high-profile defamation and sexual abuse case filed by writer E. Jean Carroll.
In a detailed opinion released on Monday, the appeals court stated, \"Trump has not demonstrated that the district court erred in any of the challenged rulings.\" The court further concluded that Trump \"has not carried his burden to show that any claimed error or combination of claimed errors affected his substantial rights as required to warrant a new trial.\"
The case began in May 2023 when a federal jury from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York awarded Carroll $5 million in damages. This included nearly $3 million for defamation after the jury found that Trump had sexually abused Carroll and subsequently defamed her by making public statements that disparaged her and denied the allegations.
Trump appealed the decision, arguing that the district court made several evidentiary errors that justified a new trial. However, the appeals court found no merit in these claims and upheld the original ruling.
Carroll, a former magazine columnist, publicly accused Trump of rape in a mid-1990s incident at a department store, allegations he denied. She brought the case forward in 2019 when an excerpt of her forthcoming book detailing the experience was published in a magazine.
In addition to the $5 million verdict, a separate Manhattan federal jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $83.3 million for defamatory statements made in 2019. Trump's appeal of this later verdict is still pending.
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U.S. court denies Trump's bid to overturn E. Jean Carroll verdict
cgtn.com
