On Friday morning, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan declined President Donald Trump’s request for a rehearing in the civil case brought by writer E. Jean Carroll. In an 8–2 decision, the court left intact the $5 million jury verdict that found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in the mid-1990s and defaming her in a 2022 Truth Social post.
The ruling effectively exhausts Trump’s options at the appellate level, leaving the U.S. Supreme Court as his only remaining path for appeal.
A three-judge panel on the same court had unanimously upheld the verdict in December 2024, rejecting Trump’s claims that the trial was unfair. His legal team had objected to the inclusion of the 2005 Access Hollywood tape and testimony from two other women who accused him of sexual misconduct. However, the court ruled that this evidence was admissible and relevant in demonstrating a pattern of behavior consistent with Carroll’s allegations.
As The Hill reports:
The president also contends he should’ve been able tell jurors that a nonprofit funded by LinkedIn co-founder and Democratic megadonor Reid Hoffman helped Carroll pay her legal fees. The president’s lawyers believed it bolstered their claims that the columnist went after Trump for political reasons, but the trial judge ruled it inadmissible.
Two Trump-appointed 2nd Circuit judges, Steven Menashi and Michael Park, in dissent said Friday that the trial included a “series of indefensible evidentiary rulings.”
“The result was a jury verdict based on impermissible character evidence and few reliable facts. No one can have any confidence that the jury would have returned the same verdict if the normal rules of evidence had been applied,” Menashi wrote.
Of the 10 judges who voted, only Menashi and Park dissented. The 2nd Circuit has 13 judges in active service eligible to sit for the case, but three of them recused without explanation.
In a separate case, a jury in January 2024 awarded Carroll an additional $83.3 million in damages for defamation related to statements Trump made in 2019. Trump has appealed that verdict as well, arguing that a 2023 Supreme Court decision granting him substantial criminal immunity should shield him from civil liability in Carroll’s cases.
Trump has consistently denied knowing E. Jean Carroll and has dismissed her allegations as a fabrication designed to generate publicity. The White House declined to comment on the appeals court’s decision, referring all inquiries to Trump’s legal team.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
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Gee whizz the same bunch of azzholes that started the fake trials in the first place are denying an appeal,, who would have thought anything better would have happened from the anal pore of New York