An Appeals Court Upholds A $5 Million Award In A Sexual Abuse Verdict Against President-Elect Trump

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA – JULY 24: U.S. Republican Presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks to attendees during his campaign rally at the Bojangles Coliseum on July 24, 2024 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The rally is the former president’s first since President Joe Biden announced he would be ending his reelection bid. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld a jury’s finding in a civil case that Donald Trump sexually abused a columnist in an upscale department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a written opinion on Monday upholding the $5 million award that the Manhattan jury granted to E. Jean Carroll for sex abuse and defamation. The longtime magazine columnist had testified at a 2023 trial that Trump turned a friendly encounter in spring 1996 into a violent attack after they playfully entered the store’s dressing room. Trump skipped the defamation and sex abuse trial after repeatedly denying the attack ever happened.