Trump’s lawyer on E. Jean Carroll defamation appeal: ‘Quintessential he said, she said case’

Former President Donald Trump’s lawyer told a federal appeals court Friday that allowing the “Access Hollywood” tape into evidence during his defamation trial with writer E. Jean Carroll was prejudicial to him.

John Sauer, Mr. Trump’s attorney, told the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City that Ms. Carroll’s decades-old rape allegations against Mr. Trump is a “quintessential he said she said case.”

Mr. Trump was in the courtroom during arguments as his campaign enters the final 60-day stretch to Election Day.

“There is no physical evidence, no eyewitnesses,” Mr. Sauer said. “No police report, no investigation.”

Mr. Sauer said the “Access Hollywood” tape, where Mr. Trump was caught saying stars could grab women by their private parts, was used improperly to establish a modus operandi against him in the allegations over the alleged rape of Ms. Carroll, a columnist and author.

Ms. Carroll sued the former president, filing a couple of lawsuits over his denial of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room in Manhattan in 1996.

She not only argued that he sexually assaulted her, but also that he defamed her.

While he was president in 2019, Mr. Trump was asked about her allegations and responded, “I’ve never met this person in my life. She is trying to sell a new book; that should indicate her motivation. It should be sold in the fiction section.”

He continued to deny the allegations, including on his social media accounts. 

The arguments Friday focused on an appeal of a federal jury awarding Ms. Carroll $5 million in damages in May 2023 after finding the former president liable for sex abuse, but not rape, and defamation for comments he made in 2022. Mr. Trump didn’t attend that trial. 

Separately, in January of this year, a federal jury awarded Ms. Carroll $83.3 million for Mr. Trump’s comments that she called defamatory. Mr. Trump did briefly attend that trial. 

Mr. Sauer argued Friday in front of a three-judge panel composed of all Democratic appointees: Denny Chin, Susan Carney and Myrna Perez.

Roberta Kaplan, representing Ms. Carroll, said the defamation trial was conducted fairly and that Mr. Trump could have called witnesses in his defense but didn’t.

“He did not put on a single witness; we put on 11,” she told the judges. “E. Jean Carroll brought this case because Donald Trump sexually assaulted her … and then defamed her.”