US appeals court rejects Trump's effort to overturn E. Jean Carroll verdict

NEW YORK -- The Second US Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday rejected US President-elect Donald Trump's attempt to overturn the rulings in a case of defamation and sexual abuse filed by writer E. Jean Carroll.

"Trump has not demonstrated that the district court erred in any of the challenged rulings," said the appeals court in an opinion.

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," concluded the appeals court.

In May 2023, a federal jury from the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York awarded Carroll 5 million dollars in damages, including nearly 3 million dollars for defamation, after they found that Trump sexually abused Carroll and then defamed her in 2022 for public statements he made disparaging her and denying the allegations.

Trump appealed and contended that the district court erred in several of its evidentiary rulings and those asserted errors entitled him to a new trial.

Carroll, a former magazine columnist, alleged that Trump raped her in a department store in the mid-1990s and then defamed her when he denied her claim.

Carroll came forward publicly in 2019 when an excerpt of her forthcoming book was released in a magazine.

Additionally, Trump should pay 83.3 million US dollars to Carroll for defamatory statements he made against her in 2019, according to the verdict of a separate Manhattan federal jury in January 2024. Trump's appeal of the later verdict is pending.