Trump in court as lawyers fight to overturn verdict in E. Jean Carroll sex abuse trial

NEW YORK — Walking off the campaign trail into a courtroom, Donald Trump watched silently Friday as one of his lawyers fought to overturn a verdict that found the former president liable for sexual abuse and defamation.

The Republican nominee and his accuser, E. Jean Carroll, a writer, sat at tables about 15 feet apart in a federal appeals courtroom. Trump did not greet or look at Carroll as he walked directly past her on the way in and out, but he shook his head at times, such as when Carroll’s lawyer said he had sexually assaulted her.

Trump attorney D. John Sauer told judges on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the civil trial in Carroll’s lawsuit was tainted by improper evidence.

“This case is a classic example of implausible allegations supported by highly inflammatory and inadmissible evidence,” Sauer said, noting that the jury was allowed to consider evidence such as the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump bragged years ago about grabbing women’s genitals.

Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, told the justices that the evidence in question was appropriate and that there was sufficient evidence in the nearly two-week trial regarding Carroll’s claim that Trump assaulted her in a fitting room at a luxury department store decades ago.

“E. Jean Carroll brought this case because Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in 1996 in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman and then smeared her in 2022 by saying she was crazy and made the whole thing up,” Kaplan said.

Carroll, who later stood with Kaplan outside the courthouse, declined to comment.

Trump left the courthouse in a motorcade, then delivered a lengthy diatribe against the case at Trump Tower, where he repeated that Carroll — and other women who have accused him of sexual assault — were making it all up.