A federal appeals court has upheld a $5 million civil judgment against President Donald Trump in a lawsuit where he was accused of sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll in a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Trump’s petition for a rehearing, with an 8-2 vote, maintaining the jury’s finding of sexual abuse and defamation based on comments he made in October 2022. Carroll testified that a friendly encounter turned into a violent attack in 1996. The appeals court upheld the verdict in December, dismissing Trump’s claims that the trial was compromised by the judge’s decisions, including allowing other accusers to testify.

Four judges, appointed by President Joe Biden, emphasized that re-litigating a case is not appropriate unless it involves exceptional importance or conflicts with precedent. However, two dissenting Trump-appointed judges criticized the trial’s evidentiary rulings, questioning the jury’s verdict based on character evidence and reliability.

Carroll’s lawyer expressed her satisfaction with the decision, stating that Trump’s attempts to challenge the jury’s findings have failed. Trump, who denied the allegations and skipped the trial, faced a separate defamation trial resulting in an $83.3 million award. The appeal for that trial is scheduled for June 24. The article refrains from identifying sexual assault survivors unless they publicly come forward, as Carroll has done.