Trump's lawyer says E. Jean Carroll verdict tainted by other accusers' testimony

[September 07, 2024]  By Jack Queen and Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) -A lawyer for Donald Trump urged an appeals court to throw out a $5 million verdict finding Trump liable for sexually assaulting and defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll, saying testimony from two other female accusers was improperly admitted at trial.

Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, left the campaign trail to attend Friday's hearing before the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on whether the May 2023 civil jury verdict should stand.

Much of Friday's arguments turned on whether the trial judge should have let jurors hear testimony from two other women who said the former U.S. president sexually mistreated them decades ago.

Trump's lawyer John Sauer also objected to letting jurors see a 2005 "Access Hollywood" video where Trump boasted graphically about forcing himself on women.

"This case is a textbook example of implausible allegations being propped up by highly inflammatory, inadmissible propensity evidence," Sauer said.

Wearing a blue suit and red tie, Trump showed little emotion during the arguments, but shook his head when Carroll's lawyer Roberta Kaplan accused him of a pattern of "chatting up" women before he "pounced" on them.

Friday's panel of three judges, all appointed to the bench by Democratic presidents, did not say when it would rule.

TRUMP ATTACKS 'RIDICULOUS CASE'

The verdict stemmed from Trump's encounter around 1996 with Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan, and an October 2022 Truth Social post where he called Carroll's claim a hoax.

Though jurors stopped short of finding that Trump raped Carroll, as she had claimed, they awarded the former Elle magazine advice columnist a respective $2.02 million and $2.98 million for sexual assault and defamation.

A different jury ordered Trump in January to pay Carroll $83.3 million for having defamed her and damaging her reputation in June 2019 after she first accused him of rape.

Trump, 78, has consistently denied wrongdoing.

In both denials underlying Carroll's lawsuits, Trump said he didn't know Carroll, that she was "not my type," and that she made up her story to promote her memoir.

Speaking to reporters after oral arguments, Trump suggested without evidence that a decades-old photo of him and Carroll, in which he once mistook Carroll for his second wife Marla Maples, may have been generated by artificial intelligence.

Writer E. Jean Carroll leaves the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where former U.S. President Donald Trump is asking a federal appeals court to overturn a $5 million jury verdict finding him liable for sexually assaulting and defaming her, who accused Trump of raping her nearly three decades ago, in Manhattan, New York, U.S., September 6, 2024. REUTERS/Adam Gray

"It's a ridiculous case," Trump said. "It's political interference, it's a witch hunt."

Trump is also appealing the $83.3 million verdict.

Carroll, 80, also attended Friday's arguments, wearing a dark blazer and suit with a navy blue hair ribbon. She and her lawyers did not talk with reporters after arguments ended.

'HE SAID, SHE SAID'

Both trials were overseen by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is not related to Roberta Kaplan.

Trump's appeal has focused on whether the judge erred in admitting testimony from Jessica Leeds, who said Trump groped her on a plane in the late 1970s, and Natasha Stoynoff, who said Trump forcibly kissed her at his Mar-a-Lago estate in 2005.

Sauer called the case "a quintessential he said, she said case" brought by a woman with a political motive to hurt Trump -- Carroll is a Democrat -- and funded by Trump's enemies.

Circuit Judge Denny Chin cautioned, however, that "it's very hard to overturn a jury verdict based on evidentiary rulings."

Carroll's lawyer Kaplan said Trump had a habit of letting "pleasant chatting" with women spiral out of control, and then forcefully denying their accusations he did anything wrong.

Circuit Judge Susan Carney sought assurance from Kaplan that jurors were not swayed unduly by Leeds' testimony, if her accusations proved "too remote (and) too unlike the circumstances that your client alleged."

Kaplan said she could. "I was going through the evidence at trial," she said. "It was incredibly powerful."

Carroll's cases are separate from multiple criminal cases against Trump, who has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Trump was convicted in May in Manhattan state court of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to silence porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.

The judge in that case on Friday delayed Trump's sentencing to Nov. 26 from Sept. 18, in part to "avoid any appearance -- however unwarranted" that the case would interfere with the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 5.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen, Jack Queen and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Jonathan Oatis)

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