Topline
Former President Donald Trump arrived at a New York appeals court Friday ahead of a panel of judges hearing his appeal of writer E. Jean Carroll’s first trial against him, as the ex-president argues a $5 million verdict finding him liable for defamation and sexual assault should be overturned.
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump waves as he departs a campaign event ... [+]
Key Facts
Trump’s motorcade arrived at the Manhattan federal courthouse ahead of the scheduled 10 a.m. hearing, according to the Associated Press.
Trump is appealing a jury’s verdict from May 2023 finding him liable for sexually assaulting—but not raping—Carroll in the 1990s, and for defaming her when he denied her allegations and publicly attacked her, claiming the writer wasn’t “my type.”
The ex-president has denied any wrongdoing in the case and claims he never met Carroll and that she’s using the allegations for her own gain, and his lawyers have argued on appeal that “inflammatory” evidence was used at the trial that should not have been admitted, like the “Access Hollywood” tape where Trump bragged about “grab[bing]” women “by the pussy” and testimony by a different woman who alleged Trump also assaulted her.
The jury at the first trial ordered Trump to pay $5 million in damages, which Trump is contesting.
Crucial Quote
“The district court’s errors allowed Carroll to prop up an empty ‘he said, she said’ case with highly inflammatory, inadmissible evidence,” Trump’s lawyers claimed in a filing at the appeals court arguing why the verdict should be overturned.
What About E. Jean Carroll’s Other Case Against Trump?
The case being heard Friday is one of two cases that Carroll brought against Trump. The second case, which was only for defamation, went to trial in January, with a jury determining Trump had to pay Carroll $83.3 million in damages. Trump is also appealing that case. Since the defamation allegations in that case were substantially similar to the ones in the first trial, however, the jury didn’t have to figure out whether Trump was liable for defamation, and just used the verdicts against him in the first trial as a basis to determine how much the ex-president had to pay. The appeal being heard Friday is therefore likely to impact the second trial. If the appeals court determines here that Trump isn’t liable for defamation or sexual abuse, the judgment in the second trial would likely get overturned, since it used those rulings as a foundation for the jury’s determination.
What To Watch For
Attorney Mitchell Epner predicted to Forbes that it will likely take a few months for the appeals court to issue a ruling in the Carroll case, with a decision coming most likely at the end of the year or in early 2025. Epner said there’s a chance the appeals court could wait until the second Carroll trial is heard on appeal to issue a ruling, though it’s not clear whether that would be the case. That would push any decision back substantially, as the second trial took place months later and hasn’t been scheduled yet for an appeal.
Key Background
Carroll sued Trump for defamation after publicly accusing him in 2019 of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room years earlier. Trump denied the allegations and publicly criticized Carroll, leading her to bring the defamation claims as she alleged Trump had harmed her reputation and his attacks led to her being harassed by his supporters. The case being heard on appeal Friday was the first to go to trial but actually the second lawsuit that Carroll brought against Trump, as the first—which later resulted in the $83.3 million judgment—got tied up in court for years before going to trial. The lawsuit at issue Friday was brought under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which gave victims a one-year period to bring legal claims that were otherwise barred under the statute of limitations. Trump has continued to attack Carroll even as he’s been ordered to pay millions for defaming her, and Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan has suggested the writer could bring additional legal claims based on his attacks.
