Donald Trump press conference: Former president files appeal in New York against verdict in E. Jean Carroll sexual abuse case

NEW YORK — With Donald Trump sitting in the courtroom, a federal appeals court in New York on Friday expressed skepticism about the former president's push for a new civil trial phase in the 2023 defamation and assault case brought by writer E. Jean Carroll. The defense was told it would be “very difficult” to overturn the jury's verdict.

Trump, who sat alone in the courtroom, said nothing during the brief hearing but greeted cartoonist Jane Rosenberg warmly as she entered the courtroom. He did not appear to make eye contact with Carroll, who was sitting just a few feet away.

Last May, a jury found that Trump must pay $5 million for defaming and sexually harassing Carroll in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. His lawyer argued that the verdict was unacceptable.

Judge Danny Chin interrupted Sauer, saying, “It is very difficult to overturn a jury verdict based on findings of evidence… so why should we order a retrial here?”

Sauer reiterated his claim that there was “an error in the admission” of the infamous Access Hollywood tape, in which Trump is heard bragging about groping women, and disputed the testimony of two women who say Trump assaulted them decades ago.

One of those women, Jessica Leeds, had testified that Trump grabbed her breast and put his hand under her skirt as they sat next to each other in first class on a flight to New York in the 1970s. Sauer argued Friday that it was “manifestly wrong” to allow the jury to hear the testimony because what Trump was accused of was not explicitly considered a crime at the time.

Roberta Kaplan, a lawyer for Carroll, said some of the arguments Sauer made overly complicated the issue before the appeals panel, describing a dispute over the relevance of sexual assault case law as “too many lawyers trying to screw in a lightbulb.” She argued that the testimony showed Trump's alleged penchant for assaulting women.

“He had a habit of making kind of a nice conversation with a woman and then, out of the blue, for lack of a better word, hitting her,” Kaplan said, to which Trump, who was sitting at the defense table, shook his head in denial.

At one point during the oral argument, Judge Chin rebuked Sauer, who delivered his argument hastily, and said to the lawyer, “You speak so fast. Why don't you speak a little slower?”

“It is an important case and it is very close to my heart,” Sauer replied.

Following the hearing, Trump ignored a loud question from ABC News about whether he was satisfied with his lawyer's argument.

The former president's appearance in the courtroom before a three-judge panel of the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was voluntary, not mandatory.

The panel has not yet made a decision. Judge Myron Perez said the case would be reconsidered.

Carroll, who filed the lawsuit in November 2022, claimed that Trump defamed her in a 2022 Truth Social post by calling her allegations a “hoax and a lie” and saying, “That woman is not my type!” when he denied her claim that Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s.

The former Elle magazine columnist added a misdemeanor charge under a New York law that allows adult victims of sexual abuse to sue their alleged attacker regardless of the statute of limitations. Trump has denied all allegations that he attacked or defamed Carroll.

“I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform after the verdict last May. “THIS VERDICT IS A SHAME – A CONTINUATION OF THE BIGGEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!”

Trump has also appealed the outcome of another case brought by Carroll involving the same allegations, in which a jury awarded her $83 million in damages.