Trump loses bid for appeals court to reconsider $5m loss to E Jean Carroll

A federal appeals court on Friday declined to rehear President Donald Trump’s challenge to a $5m (£3.6m) sexual abuse and defamation suit he lost to writer E Jean Carroll two years ago.

In May 2023, a New York jury awarded Ms Carroll damages over her civil claim that Mr Trump sexually assaulted her in the 1990s, and then branded the incident a hoax on social media. He denied the allegations.

Mr Trump, 78, had asked for a hearing before the full US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, after a three-judge panel rejected his appeal.

The appellate court did not offer an explanation, though two of the 13 judges, both appointed by Mr Trump, dissented.

Ms Carroll, a former magazine columnist who is now 81, accused Mr Trump of attacking her in the mid-1990s in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan, and later defaming her on Truth Social in a 2022 post denying her claim.

Mr Trump has called her accusations a lie on several occasions, claiming she was “not my type”.

The US Supreme Court is the last place Mr Trump can appeal the $5m decision.

He has also appealed a separate jury’s decision in 2024 finding him liable of defaming Ms Carroll and awarding her nearly $84m.

In a statement to US media, Ms Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said her client was “very pleased” with the news.

“Although President Trump continues to try every possible manoeuvre to challenge the findings of two separate juries, those efforts have failed. He remains liable for sexual assault and defamation,” she said.

The BBC has contacted Mr Trump’s legal team for comment.

In their written two dissent, the two Trump-appointed judges, Steven Menashi and Michael Park, said the decision not to rehear the case “sanctioned striking departures” from legal precedent.