Writer E. Jean Carroll arrives on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the place former U.S. President Donald Trump will arrive to ask a federal appeals courtroom to overturn a $5 million jury verdict discovering him answerable for sexually assaulting and defaming her, who accused Trump of raping her almost three a long time in the past, in Manhattan, New York, U.S., September 6, 2024.
Adam Gray | Reuters
A federal appeals court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump‘s bid to overturn a jury verdict ordering him to pay $83.3 million for defaming author E. Jean Carroll.
The ruling from a trio of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld that verdict, which Trump argued was each extreme and invalid following a Supreme Court determination that expanded his presidential immunity.
The panel held that Trump “has failed to identify any grounds that would warrant reconsidering our prior holding on presidential immunity.”
The judges additionally dominated {that a} decrease federal courtroom “did not err in any of the challenged rulings and that the jury’s damages awards are fair and reasonable.”
The determination got here lower than per week after Trump’s attorneys signaled they’ll quickly ask the Supreme Court to overturn a jury verdict in a second civil case Carroll had filed towards the president, for which she has been awarded $5 million.
Both lawsuits accused Trump of defaming Carroll in statements denying her declare that he raped her within the mid-Nineteen Nineties within the Manhattan division retailer Bergdorf Goodman.
The jury in Carroll’s second case, often known as Carroll II, discovered after a spring 2023 trial that Trump sexually abused the author in 1996 and defamed her greater than twenty years later.
In his appeal of the primary case, often known as Carroll I — which was filed first however went to trial second — Trump had argued {that a} decrease courtroom was mistaken to bar his attorneys from relitigating whether or not his statements about Carroll had been true or false.
In Monday’s ruling, the appellate judges disagreed.
While Carroll I centered on claims Trump made in 2019 and Carroll II targeted on claims he made in 2022, “the statements were identical in material respects because both accused Carroll of fabricating the sexual assault allegations for improper purposes,” they wrote.
The judges added, “The jury in Carroll II decided that Carroll was telling the truth.”
They additionally rejected Trump’s argument {that a} Supreme Court determination in July 2024 — which granted former presidents presumptive immunity for “official acts” and different protections — solid doubt on the Second Circuit’s prior dismissal of his immunity claims.
Trump “submits that [the Supreme Court case, Trump v. United States,] represents a sufficient intervening change of law and that enforcing our prior decision on immunity would work a manifest injustice in light of that change.”
“We are not persuaded,” the judges wrote.
Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, celebrated the ruling, telling CNBC in a press release, “We look forward to an end to the appellate process so that justice will finally be done.”
The White House referred CNBC to Trump’s private attorneys within the case, who didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
The panel who delivered Monday’s ruling comprised two judges appointed by former President Joe Biden and one decide picked by former President Barack Obama.