'Guardrails of the rule of law': Why federal appeals court upheld Trump/Carroll abuse verdict

30 December 2024

In the case E. Jean Carroll v. Donald J. Trump, a federal appeals court has upheld a jury's civil verdict holding the president-elect liable for, Carroll alleged, defamation and sexually abusing her. The ruling was handed down on Monday morning, December 30.

Former Elle Magazine columnist Carroll has alleged that during the 1990s, Donald Trump tried to force himself on her in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store. Trump has vehemently denied Carroll's accusation, but in May 2023, a jury in her civil defamation lawsuit found him guilty of defamation and agreed she was sexually abused. And Trump's legal team has been fighting the $5 million in damages that jurors awarded her.

The ruling has inspired a lot of reactions on X, formerly Twitter.

MSNBC legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Joyce White Vance was quick to weigh in, tweeting, "After inexplicable delay, the 2nd Circuit has affirmed the jury verdict awarding E. Jean Carroll $5 mil in the 1st of her defamation cases to go to trial against Donald Trump. The jury found Trump slandered her when he said she was lying about being sexually abused by him."

Vance added that the opinion "is 79 pages long."

Former Watergate prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks posted, "Appeals court upholds verdict finding Trump liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll. The Courts remain as guardrails of the rule of law. "

Politico's Kyle Cheney noted that the ruling upholds the parts of the civil verdict that Trump has been fighting, including the president-elect being "liable for sexually abusing" Carroll and jurors "ordering him to pay $5 million."

"Trump's request for a new trial is rejected," Cheney tweeted.

Lawfare's Roger Parloff tweeted that according to the December 30 ruling, Trump "failed to prove that Judge Kaplan 'erred in any of the challenged rulings.'"

WMBD Radio observed that "Carroll’s cases are continuing despite Trump’s having won a second four-year White House term on Nov. 5."

The Democratic group Blue Virginia posted, "Good, although the fact that 10s of millions of Americans (including Glenn Youngkin, Jen Kiggans, etc.) simply don't care about this is incredibly depressing."

Journalist Adam Klasfield pointed out that Carroll's allegations had been "affirmed by a federal appeals court."

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