Federal Court Upholds Trump’s Guilty Verdict!
New York,US, Dec 30 (EFE). –
A federal appeals court panel on Monday upheld the jury verdict that found United States President-elect Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming journalist E. Jean Carroll and ordered him to pay 5 million dollars.
“We conclude that Mr. Trump has not demonstrated that the district court erred in any of the challenged rulings,” the panel wrote in its decision.
“He has not carried his burden to show that any claimed error or combination of claimed errors affected his substantial rights as required to warrant a new trial,” it added.
Trump’s legal team is seeking to overturn a verdict by a nine-member civil court jury that found him liable for defaming and sexually assaulting Carroll, and ordered the Republican politician to pay $5 million.
At the May 2023 trial, the nine-member jury heard evidence and testimony related to Carroll’s accusation that Trump sexually assaulted her in a store fitting room in the mid-1990s and defamed her after she went public with the story.
Trump, who won the presidential election in 2024, continues to deny the facts and has repeatedly claimed that he does not know Carroll.
The Republican mogul faced a second trial with Carroll in 2024, which ended with Trump being fined 83 million dollars for defamation as he continued to deny the allegations.
Trump’s legal team is still appealing that verdict, but Monday’s decision deals a blow to his defense because he was standing on the earlier sexual abuse conviction.
In his appeal of the first trial, Trump requested that a new trial because, according to his legal team, the jury heard improper testimony.
In September, Trump’s attorney described the case to the panel as a “he said, she said” affair, noting that the alleged evidence was “implausible.”
The mogul’s lawyer also noted that businesswoman Jessica Leeds and former People magazine writer Natasha Stoynoff, who testified about alleged abuse by Trump that bore similarities to Carroll’s allegations, should not have been allowed to take the stand.
Meanwhile, the appeals court said the testimony of the other two women helped establish “a repeated, idiosyncratic pattern of conduct” consistent with Carroll’s allegations.
The panel also admitted to evidence the Access Hollywood tape recording in which Trump brags about sexually grabbing women without their permission, alleging the same reasons.
This case will continue even after Trump takes office for his second presidency in January 2025, as the US Supreme Court ruled unanimously in 1997 that sitting presidents do not have immunity from civil lawsuits for actions that occurred before their official duties. EFE
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