Appeals court rejects Trump’s bid to challenge $5 million E. Jean Carroll judgment

A federal appeals court on Friday declined to rehear President Trump’s challenge to a $5 million civil judgment after a jury found him liable in 2023 for the battery and defamation of the writer E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s.

A jury in Manhattan federal court found in 2023 that Trump attacked Carroll in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman department store in the 1990s and later defamed her when he denied her claim.

Trump had sought a hearing before the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit after a three-judge panel declined to overturn the judgment.

A divided court left intact the decision upholding the jury’s damage award.

The appellate court denial of an en banc hearing came without explanation, as is common.

In a concurring opinion, three judges said they found “no manifest error by the district court” that would warrant additional review.

In dissent, Judge Steven Menashi, a Trump appointee, said the district court should have allowed the defense to present evidence that Trump believed Carroll’s lawsuit “had been concocted by his political opposition — and therefore that he was not speaking with actual malice” when he allegedly defamed her.

In a statement responding to Friday’s decision, Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said, “E. Jean Carroll is very pleased with today’s decision. Although President Trump continues to try every possible maneuver to challenge the findings of two separate juries, those efforts have failed. He remains liable for sexual assault and defamation.”

Trump is also appealing a separate defamation award of $83 million to Carroll.