Court Rejects Trump’s Appeal of E. Jean Carroll Award
A federal appeals court in New York has upheld a jury verdict from a New York federal court that found President Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming columnist E. Jean Carroll.
The ruling now gives Trump 90 days to petition the Supreme Court to overturn the decision and enforces an order for him to pay Carroll $5 million in damages.
A three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued the mandate Thursday, affirming the December ruling that upheld the jury’s verdict, according to CNBC.
Carroll, now 81, alleges that Trump sexually abused her in a New York City department store in the mid-1990s—a claim he has consistently denied. In their May 2023 verdict, jurors found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation but did not determine that he committed rape.
The jury awarded Carroll, a former advice columnist for Elle magazine, $2.02 million for sexual assault and $2.98 million for defamation.
On Thursday, Carroll celebrated the appellate court’s decision on X, posting: “Thursday, July 10th, 2025 So long, Old Man! The United States Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit, bids thee farewell.”
However, a spokesperson for Trump characterized the new ruling as “liberal lawfare.”
“The American People are supporting President Trump in historic numbers, and they demand an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system and a swift dismissal of all of the Witch Hunts, including the Democrat-funded Carroll Hoaxes, the defense of which the Attorney General has determined is legally required to be taken over by the Department of Justice because Carroll based her false claims on the President’s official acts, including statements from the White House,” said a statement to CNBC.
In June, Trump failed to convince the same court to reconsider the $5 million verdict awarded to Carroll, with the court maintaining its December ruling that upheld the jury’s award.
Last month ahead of the appeals court ruling, Carroll said that she believes Trump might have persuaded at least one juror to avoid finding him liable for battery and defamation if he had testified in the first civil trial she brought against him.
During a joint Substack livestream with former U.S. attorney Joyce Vance, Carroll expressed her view that the jury’s composition could have favored Trump had he taken the stand, the Daily Caller reported on Friday.
“Honestly, without pulling any punches — me to you, Joyce … This is the first trial. Trump was out on that golf course in Doonbeg, Ireland, saying, ‘Oh, I got to go back because this woman I’ve never met.’ And [attorney Joe] Tacopina talked him into not coming,” Carroll said.
“If he had come to court, of course [lawyer] Robbie Kaplan would have cross-examined him for about seven hours, and he probably would not have survived that,” she added.
“But Trump … convinced half the nation to vote for him for president. They tried to impeach him twice and yet he came back. He was running in first place for president when Tacopina talked him out of it. I think if he had come back and gone on the stand, I think he could have convinced one juror,” she continued.
“One juror. And I think he could have hung the jury. There were several people on our jury from upstate New York, which is Trump country. Remember, this was not a Manhattan jury. This was an upstate, upper-county — Orange County, by the way, is Trump,” she said.
According to Spectrum News 1, Trump won Orange County by more than 8% against former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
“So we did not have a liberal, avocado-toast-eatin’ jury. We had an upstate, Trump-favoring jury … I think if he had come back and sat through the eight hours of Robbie Kaplan’s cross-examination — if he had lived through that — I think he could have convinced one juror,” Carroll added. “And I think he could have hung it.”
