A federal judge in New York delivered some bad news to Donald Trump’s legal team on Wednesday.
According to reports, Trump’s request for a new trial regarding the E. Jean Carroll civil suit has been denied.
Carroll, a journalist, accused the former president of raping and defaming her.
In May, a New York jury didn’t find Trump guilty of rape but did find him guilty of sexual abuse.
He was subsequently ordered to pay Carroll $5 million. Included in the total sum was $2 million for compensatory damages and $1.7 for reputational damages.
According to ABC News, Trump sought a retrial after the May verdict but was denied Wednesday by Judge Lewis Kaplan.
“The jury in this case did not reach ‘a seriously erroneous result,'” Kaplan said. “Its verdict is not ‘a miscarriage of justice.'”
Trump vehemently denied Carroll’s accusation throughout the trial and following its conclusion.
Immediately after the ruling, Trump published a series of responses on his social media platform, Truth Social.
“I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS. THIS VERDICT IS A DISGRACE – A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!” Trump wrote.
“VERY UNFAIR TRIAL!” Trump added in another post.
In its bid for a new trial, Trump’s legal team argued that because the jury’s ruling was for sexual abuse, rather than rape, the it would not qualify for such a large settlement.
“The Court should order a new trial on damages or grant remittitur because contrary to Plaintiff’s claim of rape, the Jury found that she was not raped but was sexually abused by Defendant during the 1995/1996 Bergdorf Goodman incident,” Trump’s attorneys argued, per ABC News.
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“Such abuse could have included groping of Plaintiffs breasts through clothing or similar conduct, which is a far cry from rape … Therefore, an award of $2 million for such conduct, which admittedly did not cause any diagnosed mental injury to Plaintiff, is grossly excessive under the applicable case law.”
In response to Wednesday’s ruling, Roberta Kaplan (no relation to Lewis Kaplan), issued a statement on behalf of her client.
“Now that the court has denied Trump’s motion for a new trial or to decrease the amount of the verdict, E. Jean Carroll looks forward to receiving the $5 million in damages that the jury awarded her,” she said.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.