Appeals court won't rehear Trump's appeal of E. Jean Carroll case
/ CBS News
President Trump on Friday lost his latest effort to get a retrial in the case in which a jury found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation of the writer E. Jean Carroll.
After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit denied Mr. Trump's appeal of the case in December, his lawyers — now top officials at the Department of Justice — asked for an en banc review, in which all the judges on the court consider the case.
That request was denied Friday. Mr. Trump has previously indicated he would challenge the case all the way to the Supreme Court. The nation's highest court is now his last hope of overturning a unanimous jury's conclusion that Mr. Trump was liable for $5 million in damages to Carroll.
Mr. Trump asked for a new trial after the jury's May 2023 judgment found that a preponderance of evidence supported Carroll's claim that Mr. Trump sexually abused her during a mid-1990s encounter in a New York City department store.
A 77-page decision in December rejected complaints Mr. Trump had repeatedly made during and after the nine-day trial. He claimed the judge who presided over the trial made a series of decisions that harmed Mr. Trump's standing with the jury.
"With his shoulder and the whole weight of his body against her, Mr. Trump held her against the wall, kissed her, pulled down her tights, and stuck his fingers into her vagina — until Ms. Carroll managed to get a knee up and push him back off of her," the appeals court wrote in December, summarizing Carroll's testimony.
The appeals court's December decision found that District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan did not err in allowing the testimony of two women who made claims on the stand of alleged encounters with Trump that bore similarities to Carroll's.
Mr. Trump has denied Carroll's allegations since they first surfaced in 2019. He has also appealed a separate jury's conclusion in January 2024 finding him liable for more defamation against Carroll. That appeal is still pending. Combined, the two juries awarded Carroll more than $88 million.
Graham Kates is an investigative reporter covering criminal justice, privacy issues and information security for CBS News Digital. Contact Graham at [email protected] or [email protected]
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