NEW YORK (Reuters) — A federal decide on Wednesday rejected Donald Trump’s request for a brand new trial on damages after a jury discovered the previous U.S. president accountable for sexually abusing and defaming the author E. Jean Carroll and awarded her $5 million.
In a 59-page choice, U.S. District Choose Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan dismissed Trump’s arguments for lowering damages to lower than $1 million, saying the Could 9 verdict was neither a “severely inaccurate end result” nor a “miscarriage of justice.”
Carroll, 79, accused Trump, 77, of raping her in a Manhattan division retailer dressing room within the mid-Nineteen Nineties, after which branding the incident a hoax in an October 2022 publish on his Fact Social platform.
Trump is interesting the decision. His lawyer didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark. Carroll’s legal professionals didn’t instantly reply to comparable requests.
In in search of a discount in damages, Trump referred to as the $2 million award for sexual abuse “grossly extreme” as a result of such abuse might have included groping Carroll’s breasts via clothes, “which is a far cry from rape.”
However the decide stated New York’s penal legislation defines rape way more narrowly than bizarre individuals consider the time period, and Trump was unsuitable to insist it excused him.
“The proof convincingly established, and the jury implicitly discovered, that Mr. Trump intentionally and forcibly penetrated Ms. Carroll’s vagina along with his fingers, inflicting quick ache and lengthy lasting emotional and psychological hurt,” the decide wrote.
“Mr. Trump’s argument subsequently ignores the majority of the proof at trial, misinterprets the jury’s verdict, and (ignored) proof of what truly occurred between Ms. Carroll and Mr. Trump,” he added.
Kaplan additionally stated the proof justified awarding Carroll $3 million for defamation, rejecting Trump’s declare that the award was based mostly on “pure hypothesis” about how Carroll’s status was harmed.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Modifying by Chizu Nomiyama and Jonathan Oatis)
