Former President Donald Trump was in a Manhattan federal court Friday as his lawyers sought to overturn a $5 million jury verdict finding him liable of sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll.
The 2024 Republican nominee’s motorcade was spotted rolling up outside the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Lower Manhattan as the hearing got underway.
Preparations started several days ago for Trump, 78, to safely be able to attend the arguments in person.
Trump was found liable in May 2023 of sexually assaulting the “Ask E. Jean” advice columnist in a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room in 1996 and then defaming her in an Oct. 12, 2022 Truth Social post calling her lawsuit a “hoax.”
Trump, who has long-denied attacking Carroll, didn’t attend the trial last year.
“Mr Trump is here today,” Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, told the court during Friday’s hearing. “He was given every opportunity to take the stand and rebut all this evidence. He did not put on a single witness.”
Trump’s lawyers have argued the jury’s verdict should be tossed because evidence was allowed at trial that should have been excluded, while other evidence was excluded that should have been permitted.
They argued, too, that the ex-president couldn’t get a fair trial in the Big Apple.
