The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld on Monday the $5 million verdict against president-elect Donald Trump for sexually assaulting and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll.
Trump appealed the lower court’s verdict, arguing that admission of evidence for other sexual assaults to be against the Federal Rules of Evidence (FRE). The trial court admitted the testimony of two women who alleged that Trump assaulted them and a recording of Trump describing how he non-consensually kissed and grabbed a woman.
Rule 415 of the FRE provides that the trial court may admit evidence of a defendant committing other sexual assaults in a civil suit based on the defendant’s alleged sexual assault. This is an exception to the general prohibition of admitting propensity evidence under FRE Rule 404.
Trump argued that the evidence of other sexual assaults was improperly admitted because the defamation claim is not a sexual assault claim and therefore is not based on Trump’s alleged sexual assault against Carroll. The appeals court disagreed and found that a claim does not have to be a sexual assault claim to be a claim based on sexual assault. The appeals court also held that the lower court properly admitted evidence of the other sexual assaults, explaining that “the jury could reasonably infer from [the evidence] that Mr. Trump engaged in … a pattern of abrupt, nonconsensual, and physical advances on women he barely knew.”
Trump also failed to convince the appeals court to reverse the verdict on the basis that the trial court unreasonably restricted his defense by excluding certain evidence and preventing cross-examination of Carroll on three issues. The evidence excluded concerned the truth of Ms. Carroll’s legal fees being paid by one of Trump’s political opponents and portions of a transcript indicating that Carroll coached one of the other sexual assault witnesses. The three issues were “her out-of-court claim that she possessed Mr. Trump’s DNA; her decision not to file a police report; and her failure to seek surveillance video footage from” the owner of the department store where Carroll alleged Trump sexually assaulted her.
Carroll sued Trump in 2019 for defamation after Trump’s statements, made in 2019 and 2022, denied ever sexually assaulting her. Carroll won the suit concerning Trump’s 2019 statement in September 2023. Trump appealed the verdict concerning his 2022 statement.
The ruling comes after Trump won $16 million in a defamation settlement with ABC. Trump sued ABC, ABC News, and news anchor George Stephanopoulos for Stephanopoulos stating in an ABC News published interview that Trump was found liable for raping Carroll.
