Judge denies Trump’s request for new trial in E. Jean Carroll case

A federal judge in New York on Wednesday denied former President Donald Trump’s request for a new trial in the defamation and battery case brought by E. Jean Carroll that resulted in a $5 million damage award.

Trump had sought a new trial after a New York jury in May found him liable for sexually assaulting the former Elle magazine columnist in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s, then defaming her in a 2022 Truth Social post by calling her allegations “a Hoax and a lie.”

Judge Lewis Kaplan denied the request, saying, “The jury in this case did not reach ‘a seriously erroneous result.'”

“Its verdict is not ‘a miscarriage of justice,'” the judge said.

In rendering its verdict in May, the jury held Trump liable for battering Carroll, but did not find that he raped her as alleged, instead holding him liable for sexual assault. Jury members awarded Carroll damages of $2 million in compensatory damages and $20,000 in punitive damages for battery, as well as $1 million in damages, $1.7 million for reputation repair, and $280,000 in punitive damages, for defamation.

“The Court should order a new trial on damages or grant remittitur because contrary to Plaintiff’s claim of rape, the Jury found that she was not raped but was sexually abused by Defendant during the 1995/1996 Bergdorf Goodman incident,” Trump’s attorneys argued in their bid for a new trial.

“Such abuse could have included groping of Plaintiffs breasts through clothing or similar conduct, which is a far cry from rape,” Trump’s attorneys said. “Therefore, an award of $2 million for such conduct, which admittedly did not cause any diagnosed mental injury to Plaintiff, is grossly excessive under the applicable case law.”