President-elect Trump on Tuesday asked a federal appeals court to reconsider a jury’s verdict finding him liable for sexually abusing and defaming advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, insisting the trial was tainted by improper evidence.
Trump asked the full 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to rehear the case after a three-judge panel on the court upheld the $5 million verdict late last month.
The new filing offers a full-throated rejection of Carroll’s claims that Trump sexually assaulted her at a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s, calling her story “decades-old, facially implausible, politically motivated allegations.”
“Carroll waited over 20 years to falsely accuse President Trump, did so at a time calculated to injure him politically and profit herself, and told a story that precisely matches a plotline from one of her favorite TV shows,” the filing reads.
Trump’s lawyers’ appeal revolves around arguments that the trial judge wrongfully allowed jurors to hear from two other women who accused the former president of sexual misconduct and listen to the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape, in which Trump is heard discussing grabbing women sexually without their consent.
“Taken together, these errors will result in the erroneous admission of inflammatory propensity evidence in many future cases, resulting in unjust verdicts based on passion and prejudice instead of the law and evidence,” Trump’s attorneys wrote in the petition.
Trump’s appeal is led by D. John Sauer, one of his personal attorneys who is Trump’s nominee for solicitor general. The petition also listed Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, who are nominated to the No. 2 and No. 3 roles at the Justice Department, respectively.
The Hill has reached out to a spokesperson for Carroll’s legal team for comment.
After Carroll’s attorneys respond in court filings, the full 2nd Circuit bench could vote to take up the appeal, a three-judge panel could rehear it or the court could reject Trump’s petition entirely. Then, Trump could still seek the Supreme Court’s review.
Carroll has taken the president-elect to trial twice, spurring some of the highest-profile civil litigation against the former president as he campaigned for a second White House term.
She won the $5 million at the first trial in May 2023 by convincing a jury by a preponderance of the evidence that Trump sexually abused the advice columnist and later defamed her by denying her story.
That verdict underpinned the second trial, when a jury last year awarded Carroll another $83.3 million for other Trump statements ruled defamatory. Trump has similarly appealed that verdict, though it remains in earlier stages.
