US Federal Appeals Court has ordered President-elect Donald Trump to pay $5 million to writer E. Jean Carroll for sexual abuse and defamation. The ruling, made on Monday, stems from a New York jury’s finding last year, which concluded that Trump had sexually assaulted Carroll at a Manhattan department store in 1996.
The court determined that Trump must pay $2 million in damages for the sexual abuse and an additional $3 million for defaming Carroll, who was a former advice columnist for *Elle* magazine. The jury’s decision followed a nine-day civil trial, during which Carroll testified that Trump had attacked her in the 1990s.
In its judgment, the court upheld the jury’s conclusions, marking a significant legal victory for Carroll, who has long maintained that Trump assaulted her. She had accused the former president of both sexual misconduct and publicly disparaging her after she made the allegations public.
Trump, however, has consistently denied the allegations, claiming that Carroll’s accusations are false. He maintains that he never sexually assaulted her, describing her claims as part of a broader political attack against him. The former president has also criticized Carroll’s testimony, describing her as “totally lying.”
The appeals court ruling follows Trump’s appeal against the original judgment. He argued that the testimony of two other women who claimed to have been sexually assaulted by him should not have been permitted in the trial. Trump’s legal team contended that these women’s testimonies were irrelevant to the case at hand, but the court rejected this argument.
Trump’s legal battles over these allegations are part of a broader series of lawsuits and accusations from multiple women, with Carroll’s case being one of the most prominent. The ruling has added another layer to the ongoing legal and public scrutiny of the former president, who is set to take office again in the coming months.
Despite the court’s decision, Trump has vowed to continue appealing the case. His legal team has signaled that they intend to challenge the ruling further, signaling that the legal battles over his alleged actions are far from over.
