In July 2023, Judge Kaplan said that the verdict found that Trump had raped Carroll according to the common definition of the word, i.e. not necessarily implying penile penetration.

I don't know this woman, have no idea who she is, other than it seems she got a picture of me many years ago, with her husband, shaking my hand on a reception line at a celebrity charity event.

[65] Trump reiterated in his deposition that he did not know Carroll before she sued him, calling her a "nut job" and inaccurately asserting that in her CNN interview with Anderson Cooper she "actually indicated that she loved" the alleged assault and "said it was very sexy to be raped".

[66] On November 24, 2022, Carroll sued Trump for battery under the Adult Survivors Act (a law passed the previous May which allows sexual-assault victims to file civil suits beyond expired statutes of limitations).

He cited Trump's incendiary rhetoric against perceived enemies (including officials) ahead of his criminal indictment in New York related to hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.

[94] On April 14 Kaplan upheld his ruling for an anonymous jury and denied a request from Trump's team for information about its members on the basis of possible bias after they cited negative online comments made about him on Carroll's June 2019 New York article.

[98][99] On April 11 defense attorney Tacopina asked to delay the trial by a month, arguing that media coverage of the Daniels scandal would taint the jury pool.

[101][102] On April 13 Trump's attorneys asked to reopen discovery about whether Carroll knew that her lawyer's firm had received donations from Democrat-aligned billionaire and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman.

[106] On April 26 Carroll testified; she said she was unaware if any employees were present during the alleged incident because the department was on a different story and she was focused on riding the escalator, while also supposing that the encounter would make a humorous anecdote.

[115] Carroll said she omitted the incident from her diary because she thought it would force her to think about the negative experience, and said she was inspired to come forward by the #MeToo movement, especially the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse cases.

[120] Leeds said a flight attendant invited her to move to first class and sat her next to[122] Donald Trump, whom she did not know, and that he groped her breast and tried to kiss her, but that she broke away when he started reaching up her skirt.

[144] On June 8, Trump's team requested the award to be reduced to under $1 million or that a new trial should be held regarding damages, citing the jury's supposed rejection of the rape claim.

[148][149] On June 27, Trump filed a counterclaim alleging that Carroll had defamed him, particularly when she told CNN "yes he did" rape her in response to a question about the jury not finding him liable for that offense.

[150] On August 7, Judge Kaplan dismissed the counterclaim[151] and wrote that Carroll's accusation of "rape" is "substantially true" according to the common definition of the word, i.e. not necessarily implying penile penetration.

[13][14][15][155] On May 14, 2024, Carroll's lawyers requested an expedited appeal, arguing that its completion by July 2024 would lessen the chance of Trump seeking delays related to other trials or his potential presidency.

[159] On May 9, 2023, Judge Kaplan explained to jurors a verdict form, discussing three types of battery for which Trump could be liable to pay damages under New York law: rape, sexual abuse, and forcible touching.

[160][161][162] Seeking $10 million in damages, Carroll amended her original defamation suit on May 22, 2023, to include additional comments Trump made following the verdict against him that month, both on a CNN town hall broadcast and Truth Social.

[163][164] After that amendment was filed, Trump made further negative remarks about Carroll on Truth Social, in which he admitted he had met her as captured by the 1987 photograph,[165][166] despite having otherwise claimed (including in his 2019 official statement) that he had not.

[184] On November 29, Trump posted on Truth Social that the Adult Survivors Act was unconstitutional, further disparaging Carroll and calling the case "election interference" (as he had said about a number of other unsettled legal matters).

[185] On December 21, less than a month before the trial's start date, Trump's team requested a 90-day delay to allow further appeal planning (possibly including a strategy of asking for the case to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court),[c] citing Special Counsel Jack Smith's recent description of the question of immunity as being "weighty and consequential" in the federal criminal case against Trump for alleged election obstruction.

[188][189] Also on December 21, Carroll's lawyer asked Judge Kaplan to indicate quotes from the New York civil investigation of The Trump Organization he intended to cite in the trial.

[194][195] On January 9, Kaplan further ruled that the defense could not argue about Carroll's choice of lawyer, who was paying her legal fees, her romantic/sexual proclivities, or that Trump did not sexually abuse her or act with actual malice when making disparaging comments about her.

[200] Also on January 12, the judge denied a request from Trump to delay the trial by a week so he could attend the funeral of his mother-in-law, prompting an incendiary Truth Social post.

[237] On January 30, New York Governor Kathy Hochul mentioned the case during a bill-signing ceremony for a law expanding the state's legal definition of rape to include nonconsensual vaginal, anal, and oral contact, effective non-retroactively on September 1, 2024.

[240] On February 24, Judge Kaplan denied the stay on the basis that the payment remained unsecured and Trump's team had not "first ... afforded [Carroll] a meaningful opportunity to be heard".

According to Trump's team, the judge failed to instruct the jury to determine whether he acted with malice as defined by common law, which dictates that it was his "sole, exclusive desire to harm" Carroll.

On April 25, Kaplan upheld the judgment, finding it to pass "constitutional muster", and denied a motion for a new trial, calling the defense's arguments both legally and factually "entirely without merit".

[16][250] Trump subsequently filed a defamation lawsuit against ABC News, alleging that Stephanopoulos's statements were "false, intentional, malicious and designed to cause harm".

[252] Puck reported that ABC News leadership was highly concerned about the contents of emails and texts from Stephanopoulos's phone, which would have been turned over in the impending discovery phase of the suit.

[235] On March 8, 2024, Trump filed an appeal notice and secured a $91.63 million bond (based on the 110% typically required by the district court to cover interest),[255][256] underwritten by a subsidiary of the insurance company Chubb.