A federal appeals court rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn a jury’s verdict that found he sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll in a dressing room in the 1990s.

“Trump has not demonstrated that the district court erred in any of the challenged rulings,” the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote. “Further, he has not carried his burden to show that any claimed error or combination of claimed errors affected his substantial rights as required to warrant a new trial.”

In May 2023, a jury held Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman department store and defaming her after she made her allegations public. She was awarded $5 million in damages.

In a separate civil trial, Trump was ordered to pay Carroll $83 million in damages for comments he had made about her while he was president, finding they were defamatory.

Trump attorney D. John Sauer argued in September that testimony from witnesses who said Carroll told them about the 1996 encounter with Trump immediately afterward was improper because the witnesses had “egregious bias” against Trump.

Trump previously insisted Carroll made up the story about being attacked to sell a new book and denied knowing her.

Lawyers for Trump also challenged repeated airing at trial of an “Access Hollywood” videotape from 2005 in which Trump is heard saying that he sometimes just starts kissing beautiful women and “when you’re a star they let you do it.”

The appeals court wrote that in a combination of testimony and the “Access Hollywood” tape, a jury could reasonably infer Trump “engaged in similar conduct with other women — a pattern of abrupt, nonconsensual, and physical advances on women he barely knew.”

In response to the ruling, Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump, told The Associated Press, “The American People have re-elected President Trump with an overwhelming mandate, and they demand an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system and a swift dismissal of all of the Witch Hunts, including the Democrat-funded Carroll Hoax, which will continue to be appealed.”

Roberta Kaplan, attorney for Carroll, said she and her client “are gratified by today’s decision. We thank the Second Circuit for its careful consideration of the parties’ arguments.”

Earlier this month, ABC News agreed to pay $15 million toward Trump’s presidential library to settle a lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate on-air assertion that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping Carroll.

Editor’s note: The Associated Press contributed to this article. Have a news tip? Contact Alexx Altman-Devilbiss at aaltman-devilbiss@sbgtv.com.