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In a brief hearing Friday attended by Donald Trump, a lawyer for the Republican presidential nominee asked an appeals court to toss a jury verdict that found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll.
Trump’s legal team is seeking a new trial as they argue that the judge improperly admitted evidence in the civil case. His attorney John Sauer told a 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel that the trial judge had erred in allowing two other women to testify against Trump and in showing the jury an infamous 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump brags about groping women’s genitals without their consent.
Natasha Stoynoff, a former People magazine writer, and Jessica Leeds, a retired entrepreneur, both separately testified in the case that Trump had sexually assaulted them in the past (Trump has denied their allegations). Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, pushed back on Sauer’s argument, saying that the women’s testimonies were crucial to establishing a pattern. Kaplan pointed to Trump’s deposition in the case, in which he appeared to defend his comments in the “Access Hollywood” tape, and said that the 2005 recording should be seen as a “confession.” She also questioned his attendance at Friday’s hearing, noting that Trump had been absent from court throughout the trial and that his defense team had not called any witnesses.
Lawyers for Trump and Carroll were each given 10 minutes to speak at the hearing. The three-judge panel did not immediately rule on the appeal, and a decision is unlikely to come before the election.
A jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages in the case in May 2023. Trump has long denied Carroll’s allegations, claiming that she is not his “type” and suggesting that she made up the incident as a marketing tactic for her book. In January, a separate jury ordered him to pay Carroll $83.3 million for repeatedly defaming her in his repeated denials of her allegations.
Outside the courthouse after the hearing, Carroll declined to comment to reporters. In a public appearance later on Friday, Trump again denied Carroll’s claim, and he accused Leeds of making up her allegation, saying he would not have “chosen” her.
“And, frankly, I know you’re going to say it’s a terrible thing to say, but it couldn’t have happened. It didn’t happen,” he said. “And she would not have been the chosen one.”