President-elect loses appeal in E Jean Carroll case connected to alleged 1990s attack, must pay $5m.
United States President-elect Donald Trump has lost an appeal to a jury’s 2023 finding that he was liable for sexual abuse and defamation related to an alleged attack on writer E Jean Carroll in the 1990s.
On Monday, a federal appeals court upheld the 2023 verdict in the civil case, in which Trump was not found to have committed rape, but was ordered to pay Carroll $2.02m for sexual assault and $2.98m for defamation.
Carroll had accused Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan in either 1995 or 1996. She detailed the alleged attack in a 2019 article, prompting a denial from then-President Trump via the White House spokesperson.
Carroll initially filed a defamation lawsuit in 2019 and a second, separate lawsuit alleging defamation and rape in November 2022. The second suit came after Trump called the lawsuits as “complete con job” and claimed he had “no idea” who Carroll was. He further derided the legal action as a “hoax”.
Monday’s decision relates to the second lawsuit that Carroll filed. In January of this year, Trump was separately ordered to pay $83.3m for the 2019 defamation case. Trump is also appealing that verdict.
Because both cases are civil, and not criminal, the jury technically found Trump “liable”, but not guilty of the claims.
The cases have continued despite Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election. He is set to begin his second four-year White House term on January 20, after previously serving as president from 2017 to 2021.
Trump was convicted earlier this year in a separate criminal trial in New York for falsifying business records in an attempt to cover up hush money payments to an adult film star. Following his victory, sentencing in that case was put on hold.
Trump’s win helped him to avoid two other federal criminal cases against him, including one connected to hiding and hoarding classified White House documents and another for his alleged role in seeking to overturn the 2020 election results. Under longstanding US Department of Justice policy, a sitting president cannot be prosecuted.
A fourth criminal case in Georgia, related to alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 election results in the state, has also been thrown into uncertainty following Trump’s election win.
However, Trump is not protected from all legal actions.
In 1997, in a case involving former President Bill Clinton, the US Supreme Court ruled unanimously that sitting presidents have no immunity from civil litigation in federal court over actions predating and unrelated to their official duties as president.
