Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers will appear before a federal appeals panel on Friday to argue that a $5 million judgment Finding him liable for sexually assaulting and defaming author E. Jean Carroll was “unfair” and should be thrown out.
The case is one of two in which unanimous federal juries awarded Carroll the total more than 88 million dollars.
In the May 2023 trial, jurors heard evidence related to Carroll’s claim that in the mid-1990s Trump sexually assaulted her in a department store dressing room and defamed her after she went public with the story in 2019.
The second trial, which resulted in an $83 million verdict in January of this year, revolved around additional allegations of defamation.
In their appeal of the first ruling, which Trump’s lawyers filed Friday, they argued that the judge issued “erroneous and prejudicial evidentiary rulings.” They said two of Carroll’s friends should not have been allowed to testify. The friends said Carroll confided in them in the 1990s, shortly after the alleged attack. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.
Trump’s lawyers also said two other women should not have been allowed in the stands. Carroll’s attorneys called Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff, who testified about alleged abuse by Trump that had similarities to Carroll’s allegations.
Carroll’s lawyers called Trump’s appeal a demand for “a do-over” with “driven allegations of wrongdoing and sweeping complaints of unfairness.”
Lawyers for Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, will have 10 minutes to argue their case before a three-judge US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit panel appointed by former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, both Democrats.
Carroll’s attorney also has 10 minutes.