Appeals court rejects Trump's bid to overturn E. Jean Carroll verdict
A federal appeals court in an 8-2 vote Friday declined President Trump's bid to rehear his appeal of a jury verdict finding him liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, leaving the Supreme Court as Trump's only remaining pathway.
A three-judge panel on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld the verdict late last year. On Friday, the full active 2nd Circuit bench declined to disturb that decision over the dissent of two judges.
'Simply re-litigating a case is not an appropriate use of the en banc procedure,' wrote U.S. Circuit Judge Myrna Pérez, joined by three of her colleagues, all of whom were appointed by former President Biden.
'In those rare instances in which a case warrants our collective consideration, it is almost always because it involves a question of exceptional importance or a conflict between the panel's opinion and appellate precedent,' Pérez added.
In 2023, the New York jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the mid-1990s and defaming her by denying her story when she came forward during Trump's first presidency. The jury ordered Trump to pay $5 million.
Trump, who maintains he never assaulted Carroll, argued his trial was tainted because the jury heard improper evidence, like the infamous 'Access Hollywood' tape and testimony from other women who accused Trump of sexual assault.
The president also contends he should've been able tell jurors that a nonprofit funded by LinkedIn co-founder and Democratic megadonor Reid Hoffman helped Carroll pay her legal fees. The president's lawyers believed it bolstered their claims that the columnist went after Trump for political reasons, but the trial judge ruled it inadmissible.
Two Trump-appointed 2nd Circuit judges, Steven Menashi and Michael Park, in dissent said Friday that the trial included a 'series of indefensible evidentiary rulings.'
'The result was a jury verdict based on impermissible character evidence and few reliable facts. No one can have any confidence that the jury would have returned the same verdict if the normal rules of evidence had been applied,' Menashi wrote.
Of the 10 judges who voted, only Menashi and Park dissented. The 2nd Circuit has 13 judges in active service eligible to sit for the case, but three of them recused without explanation.
The Hill has reached out to Carroll's and Trump's legal teams for comment. The White House deferred comment to Trump's attorneys.
The case was the first of two times Carroll took Trump to trial.
In Carroll's other lawsuit, another jury later ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million in defamation damages for continuing to deny her story.
Trump's appeal in that case heads to a three-judge 2nd Circuit panel for oral arguments on June 24. The panel is expected to rule beforehand on whether the Justice Department can replace Trump as the defendant, which would enable him to avoid paying any damages.
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