NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 25: Magazine Columnist E. Jean Carroll leaves after the first day of her civil trial against former President Donald Trump at Manhattan Federal Court on April 25, 2023 in New York City. Jury selections begin in the Carroll civil trial against the former president, which she alleges attacked and sexually assaulted her in a dressing room of a luxury department store in the 1990s. The lawsuit comes after the passage of the Adult Survivors Act, a 2022 New York law that gave a one-year window beginning in November of that year for people to sue their alleged assailants even if the statute of limitations had expired, which had happened in Carroll’s case. The former president has stated that this never happened and has denied meeting her. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Manhattan Judge Lewis Kaplan denied Donald Trump’s request for a new trial in E. Jean Carroll’s sexual abuse case, in which Trump was ordered to pay the former columnist $5 million in damages.
The lawsuit took place in 2022 when Carroll stated that Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s. Trump denied ever meeting Carroll, prompting her to sue him for defamation on the grounds that he damaged her reputation as a journalist.
Trump was found guilty of sexual abuse and defamation in April, though Carroll still has an open case regarding another instance of defamation in 2019 when he made similar remarks.
Trump claimed that the damages award was excessive since the jury did not find Trump guilty of raping Carroll. However, Kaplan said that the ruling “did not deviate materially from reasonable compensation so as to make it excessive.
Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter!
A week of political news in your in-box.
We find the news you need to know, so you don't have to.
“There was ample, arguably overwhelming evidence that Mr. Trump forcibly digitally penetrated Ms. Carroll, thus fully supporting the jury’s sexual abuse finding,” said Kaplan, refuting claims that the former president was wrongly convicted of sexual assault.
After Wednesday’s hearing, Trump filed a notice of appeal of the verdict. Carroll’s lawyer shared a statement outlining their next steps.
“Now that the court has denied Trump’s motion for a new trial or to decrease the amount of the verdict, E. Jean Carroll looks forward to receiving $5 million in damages that the jury awarded her,” she said.
The trial for Carroll’s defamation lawsuit is scheduled to begin on January 15, 2024.
On Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) banned noncompete agreements in a 3-2 vote. The…
A proposed bill in California would prohibit security screening company CLEAR from skipping the general…
On Monday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments over a challenge to a law allowing…
The Arizona House of Representatives failed to advance a repeal of the state's 160-year-old abortion…
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek (D) signed a bill restoring criminal charges in cases of hard drug possession.…
President Joe Biden's administration announced the first-ever national limits on toxic "forever chemicals" in drinking water. This…