NEW YORK (AP) — As Donald Trump campaigns for president, his lawyers are fighting to overturn a conviction that found him liable for sexual assault and defamation.
Three judges of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments Friday in Trump’s appeal of a jury’s finding that he sexually assaulted author E. Jean Carroll, who says the Republican attacked her in a department store dressing room in 1996. That jury awarded Carroll $5 million.
In a stately federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan, preparations have been underway for several days so that Trump can attend the arguments in person.
Trump’s lawyers argue that the jury’s verdict should be overturned because evidence was allowed during the trial that should have been excluded, and other evidence was excluded that should have been allowed.
Trump, who denies assaulting Carroll, did not attend the 2023 trial and has expressed regret over not attending.
The court is unlikely to rule before the November presidential election.
The civil case has both political and financial implications for Trump.
Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, has slammed Trump for the jury’s verdict, repeatedly stressing that he was found liable for sexual assault.
And this past January, a second jury awarded Carroll an additional $83.3 million in damages for comments Trump made about her while he was president, saying they were defamatory. That jury had been instructed by the judge to accept the first jury’s finding that Trump had sexually assaulted Carroll. The second trial was held largely to determine how badly Carroll had been harmed by Trump’s comments and how severely he should be punished.
Trump, 77, testified for less than three minutes during the trial and was not allowed to challenge the jury’s findings in May 2023. Still, he was animated throughout the two-week trial, and jurors could be heard grumbling about the case.
The appeal of the outcome of that trial, which Trump immediately called “absolutely ridiculous!” will be heard by the appeals court at a later date.
Carroll, 80, testified at both trials that her life as an Elle columnist was ruined by Trump’s public comments, which she said fueled so much hatred that she received death threats and was afraid to leave the cabin in upstate New York where she lives.
Trump’s lawyers argued in court documents that he deserves a new trial, in part because the judge, Lewis A. Kaplan, allowed two other women to testify about similar sexual abuse incidents they allege Trump committed against them in the 1970s and in 2005.
They also argued that Kaplan improperly dismissed evidence that Carroll lied during her testimony, and other evidence that they say reveals bias and motives to lie for Carroll and other witnesses against Trump. The verdict, they wrote, was “unjust and erroneous,” resulting from “flawed and damaging evidentiary decisions.”
Trump has maintained that Carroll made up the story about the attack to sell a new book. He denies knowing her.
Trump’s lawyers are also objecting to the repeated airing during the trial of a 2005 “Access Hollywood” videotape in which Trump is heard saying that sometimes he just goes and kisses beautiful women and “when you’re a star, they let you do it.” He also said that a star can grab women’s genitals because “you can do anything.”
In their written arguments, Carroll’s lawyers said Trump improperly demanded a “retrial” based on unsubstantiated “general complaints of unfairness” and other “distortions of the record, misstatements or misapplications of the law, and an abiding disregard for the court’s reasoning.”
“There was no error here, let alone a violation of Trump’s substantial rights. This Court should affirm,” Carroll’s lawyers said.
