NEW YORK (AP) — As Donald Trump campaigns for president, his lawyers are fighting to overturn a conviction that found him guilty of sexual assault and defamation.
Three judges of the US 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals are scheduled to hear arguments in Trump’s appeal of the jury’s finding that he sexually assaulted author E. Jean Carroll. He says the Republican attacked him in a department store dressing room in 1996. A jury awarded Carroll $5 million.
For several days, preparations have been made in the stately federal courthouse in Manhattan for Trump to attend the arguments in person.
Trump’s lawyers say the jury’s verdict should be tossed because the trial allowed evidence that should have been excluded and other evidence that should have been allowed.
Trump, who has denied attacking Carroll, did not attend the 2023 trial and has apologized for not being there.
The court is unlikely to issue a decision before the presidential election in November.
The civil case has both political and economic implications for Trump.
Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, has slammed Trump for the jury’s verdict, repeatedly pointing out that he has been found guilty of sexual assault.
And last January, another jury awarded Carroll another $83.3 million in damages for comments Trump made about him while he was president, finding them defamatory. The judge had instructed the jury that it had to accept the first jury’s finding that Trump had sexually assaulted Carroll. The second trial was held largely to determine how badly Carroll was offended by Trump’s comments and how severely he should be punished.
Trump, 77, testified for less than three minutes in the trial and was not allowed to overturn the conclusions reached by the May 2023 jury. Still, he was animated in the courtroom throughout the two-week trial, and jurors could be heard grumbling about the case.
Appealing the outcome of that trial, which Trump called “absolutely ridiculous”! immediately thereafter, it will be heard in the Court of Appeal at a later date.
Carroll, 80, testified in both trials that her life as a columnist for Elle magazine was ruined by Trump’s public comments, which she said fueled such anger toward her that she received death threats and was afraid to go outside the upstate New York cottage where she lives.
Trump’s lawyers said in court documents that Trump deserves a new trial in part because the trial judge, Lewis A. Kaplan, allowed two other women to testify about similar sexual abuse they allege Trump committed against them in the 1970s and in 2005.
They also argued that Kaplan improperly denied evidence that Carroll lied on the deposition and other evidence that they said would reveal bias and motives to lie on behalf of Carroll and other witnesses against Trump. They wrote that the conviction was “unfair and flawed” due to “erroneous and prejudicial evidentiary rulings.”
Trump has insisted that Carroll made up the story that he was being attacked to sell a new book. He has denied knowing her.
Trump’s lawyers also challenged the repeated showing in court of an “Access Hollywood” videotape from 2005 in which Trump is heard saying that sometimes he just starts kissing beautiful women and “when you’re a star, they let you do it.” He also said that the star can grab female genitalia because “You can do anything.”
In written arguments, Carroll’s lawyers said Trump wrongfully sought “correction” based on unsubstantiated “broad complaints of unfairness” and other “distortions of the record, misstatements or misapplications of the law, and steadfast disregard for the district court’s reasoning.”
“There was no error here, let alone a violation of Trump’s substantive rights. This court should affirm,” Carroll’s lawyers said.
