A federal judge on Wednesday rejected former US President Donald Trump’s request for a new trial in the civil case brought forward by writer E. Jean Carroll.
The former president had requested a new trial on the civil sexual assault and defamation case, which US District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan denied in a 59-page ruling. Kaplan also denied Trump’s request to reduce the $5 million that was previously awarded to Carroll.
“The jury in this case did not reach ‘a seriously erroneous result,” Kaplan said. “Its verdict is not ‘a miscarriage of justice.'"
"There is no basis for disturbing the jury’s sexual assault damages. And Mr. Trump’s arguments with respect to the defamation damages are no stronger," Kaplan wrote, adding that Trump’s arguments against awarding Carroll $2 million for sexual assault were “entirely unpersuasive.”
“Now that the court has denied Trump’s motion for a new trial or to decrease the amount of the verdict, E. Jean Carroll looks forward to receiving the $5 million in damages that the jury awarded her in Carroll II. She also looks forward to continuing to hold Trump accountable for what he did to her at the trial in Carroll I, which is scheduled to begin on January 15, 2024,” said Roberta Kaplan, an attorney for Carroll.
Trump currently has a separate appeal of the verdict pending, as well as a counterclaim against Carroll alleging she defamed him for alleging he raped her in public statements even after the jury’s verdict.
However, the presiding judge explained that in New York criminal law the definition of rape is quite narrow, as it applies only to “vaginal penetration by a penis.” He added that its definition is wider in “common modern parlance,” “some dictionaries,” “federal and state criminal statutes, and elsewhere.”
"The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was 'raped' within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump 'raped' her as many people commonly understand the word 'rape.' Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that," he wrote.