Trump appealing $5 million judgment in E. Jean Carroll civil suit

Former President Donald Trump is appealing the $5 million judgment awarded by the Manhattan federal jury that found he sexually abused and defamed former magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll.

Trump's lawyers filed the notice of appeal in the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday, hours after federal Judge Lewis Kaplan filed a written ruling endorsing the jury verdict and ordering Trump to pay Carroll the full sum. Kaplan presided over the civil trial in New York.

Trump had previously indicated he planned to appeal.

Carroll alleged Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York in the spring of 1996 and then defamed her when he denied her claim, said she wasn't his type and suggested she made up the story to boost sales of her book.

The jury found him liable for battery based on the sexual assault claim, that he should pay about $2 million in damages to Carroll for the civil battery claim and that he should pay her nearly $3 million in damages for successfully proving her defamation claim against him.

While the jury found that Trump sexually abused her, sufficient to hold him liable for battery, the jury did not find that Carroll proved he raped her.

Trump denied all claims brought against him by Carroll and called the civil trial verdict "a total disgrace."