Judge upholds the $5 million jury verdict against Trump in a writer’s sex abuse and defamation case

By LARRY NEUMEISTER
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge has upheld a $5 million jury verdict against Donald Trump, rejecting the ex-president’s claim the jury vindicated him by failing to conclude in a civil case that he raped a columnist in a New York department store in the 1990s. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said Wednesday the jury’s May award of compensatory and punitive damages to writer E. Jean Carroll for sexual abuse and defamation was reasonable. Trump’s lawyers wanted the judge to reduce the award to less than $1 million or order a new trial on damages. They’ve amended their trial appeal to add the judge’s ruling. Carroll’s attorney says she looks forward to receiving the $5 million the jury awarded.