Appeals court rejects Trump’s attempt to overturn E. Jean Carroll verdict
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(NEW YORK) — A federal appeals court on Monday rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn a jury’s verdict last year that found he sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s.
The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided “Trump has not demonstrated that the district court erred in any of the challenged rulings” and “has not carried his burden to show that any claimed error or combination of claimed errors affected his substantial rights as required to warrant a new trial.”
The jury in the civil case held Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in a dressing room at a Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in the mid-1990s, and determined that, in 2022, he made defamatory statements about her. The jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages.
A different jury, in a separate civil trial, ordered Trump to pay Carroll, a former Elle magazine columnist, $83 million in damages. Trump’s appeal of that verdict is pending.
In the first trial, Trump claimed District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan erred by allowing two women, Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff, to testify about Trump’s alleged sexually assaults of them. Trump denied the claims of those two women.
Trump also faulted Kaplan’s decision to allow part of the now-infamous “Access Hollywood” tape into evidence. In the 2005 recording, Trump is heard describing to then-Access Hollywood host Billy Bush how he kissed and grabbed women without first obtaining their consent.
The appellate court, in Monday’s opinion, decided the tape was admissible “as evidence of a pattern” of alleged behavior by Trump.
“The jury could have reasonably concluded from those statements that, in the past, Mr. Trump had kissed women without their consent and then proceeded to touch their genitalia,” the opinion said.
(NEW ORLEANS) — The New Orleans Saints and the NFL announced Saturday that they will donate $1 million to the victims of the New Year’s Day truck ramming attack on Bourbon Street that killed 14 people and injured dozens of others.
“Our community has experienced an unimaginable tragedy and our collective hearts are broken as we mourn for the victims and survivors on the New Year’s Day terror attack in New Orleans,” Saints owner Gayle Benson said in a statement.
The team will be working with the Greater New Orleans Foundation (GNOF) and United Way to help distribute $500,000 to organizations that are providing support to the victims and their families.
The NFL Foundation, the league’s philanthropic arm, said it would match the team’s donation.
“The NFL is committed to standing with the resilient community of New Orleans during this difficult time,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement.
As of Saturday, 13 of the 14 victims have been publicly identified. Their ages range from 18 to 63, according to officials.
A 13-year-old was apprehended for allegedly targeting young girls in a string of home invasions in Michigan, authorities said. Oakland County Sheriff’s Office
(DETROIT) — A 13-year-old was apprehended for allegedly targeting young girls in a string of home invasions in Michigan, authorities said.
The teen was allegedly involved in nine break-ins in Pontiac and two in Detroit, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said.
On Feb. 4, the suspect — who was wearing a ski mask and was armed with a knife — choked a sleeping 10-year-old girl, according to the sheriff’s office. The girl screamed, and then her mom saw the suspect run down the stairs and out of the house, the sheriff’s office said.
“This is the worst nightmare for any parent — that somebody might be trying to climb in through a window to get after their kids, especially a young teenage girl,” Bouchard said at a news conference.
There were few physical injuries, but Bouchard stressed the immense “emotional trauma” of being targeted in bed.
The break-ins began two years ago, Bouchard said. The suspect allegedly looked for unlocked windows and had a knife during several incidents, he said.
Charges are not yet clear. The 13-year-old’s parent has been cooperative, Bouchard said.
(NEW YORK) — A New York appeals judge has denied President-elect Donald Trump’s request to delay the Jan. 10 sentencing in his criminal hush money case.
Trump’s sentencing will proceed as planned on Friday, pending potential additional legal maneuvers by the president-elect’s lawyers.
Judge Ellen Gesmer rejected Trump’s claim that the case should be delayed because of presidential immunity, after his attorney argued before the court that Trump is covered by presidential immunity that extends to him while he waits to be sworn in.
The appellate court heard arguments Tuesday in Trump’s lawsuit against the judge in the case, Juan Merchan, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, as part of Trump’s effort to halt his sentencing following his criminal conviction in May.
“We should get a stay so that no further action happens,” defense attorney Todd Blanche said during oral arguments at the Appellate Division’s First Judicial Department. “The imposition is extraordinary.”
Judge Ellen Gesmer questioned whether immunity granted to sitting presidents extends to presidents-elect.
“I’m curious about that,” she said. “Do you have any support for a notion that presidential immunity extends to Presidents-elect?”
Blanche replied that he did not. “There has never been a case like this before, so no,” Blanche said.
Prosecutors said there is no evidence “whatsoever” to back the claim that presidential immunity applies to Trump prior to his inauguration on Jan. 20.
“The claim is so baseless that there is no support for an automatic stay here,” said Steven Wu of the Manhattan district attorney’s office. “There is a compelling public interest in seeing this process come to an end.”
The prosecutor noted that Trump’s sentencing was originally scheduled for July 11 and every delay since has been done at Trump’s request.
“If sentencing is to happen at all, now is the best time for it to happen,” Wu said.
Trump was found guilty in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
Merchan initially scheduled Trump’s sentencing for July 11 before pushing it back in order to weigh if Trump’s conviction was impacted by the Supreme Court’s July ruling prohibiting the prosecution of a president for official acts undertaken while in office. Merchan subsequently ruled that Trump’s conviction related “entirely to unofficial conduct” and “poses no danger of intrusion on the authority and function of the Executive Branch.”
Trump’s lawyers asked the appeals court to stop the proceedings — including his Jan. 10 sentencing — and to dismiss his conviction outright based on presidential immunity grounds.
“Justice Merchan’s erroneous decisions threaten the institution of the Presidency and run squarely against established precedent disallowing any criminal process against a President-Elect, as well as prohibiting the use of evidence of a President’s official acts against him in a criminal proceeding,” they argued in their suit.
Blanche and fellow defense lawyer Emil Bove, both of whom Trump has picked for top Justice Department posts in his incoming administration, claimed in the suit that Trump’s “undisputed absolute immunity” extends to his time as president-elect — an argument that Judge Merchan roundly denied last week.
The lawyers also claimed that the jury’s verdict was “erroneous” because they saw evidence related to official acts.
“President Trump brings this Article 78 proceeding to redress the serious and continuing infringement on his Presidential immunity from criminal process that he holds as the 45th and soon-to-be 47th President of the United States of America,” the filing said.
The president-elected faces up to four years in prison, but Merchan last week indicated that he would sentence Trump to an unconditional discharge — effectively a blemish on Trump’s record, without prison, fines or probation — saying that would strike a balance between the duties of president and the sanctity of the jury’s verdict.
Merchan on Monday denied a separate request by Trump to halt the sentencing in the case.