An appeals court upholds a $5 million award in a sexual abuse verdict against President-elect Trump

A federal appeals court has upheld a jury's finding in a civil case that Donald Trump sexually abused a columnist in an upscale department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a written opinion on Monday upholding the $5 million award that the Manhattan jury granted to E. Jean Carroll for sex abuse and defamation. The longtime magazine columnist had testified at a 2023 trial that Trump turned a friendly encounter in spring 1996 into a violent attack after they playfully entered the store's dressing room. Trump skipped the defamation and sex abuse trial after repeatedly denying the attack ever happened.