Judge upholds $5 million jury verdict against Trump, rejecting the ex-president’s vindication claim

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 dressing room in the 1990s. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said in a written opinion 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 had asked the judge to reduce the jury award to less than $1 million or order a new trial on damages. Carroll’s attorney says she looks forward to receiving the $5 million the jury awarded her.