A federal judge has rejected Donald Trump’s request for a new trial in the civil case brought by E Jean Carroll. The jury in this case found the former US president liable for sexually abusing and defaming the writer, resulting in a $5 million damages award.
In a detailed 59-page decision, US district judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan stated that the jury’s verdict, which was delivered on May 9, was not a “miscarriage of justice,” and there was no “seriously erroneous result.”
E Jean Carroll accused Trump of raping her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. Trump had later branded the incident a hoax in a post on his Truth Social platform in October 2022.
Trump had argued that the $2 million awarded to Carroll as compensatory damages for sexual assault was “excessive” since the jury did not find him guilty of rape. Additionally, he claimed that the defamation award was based on “pure speculation.” However, the judge’s decision upheld the jury’s findings.