A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a $5 million verdict E. Jean Carroll won against Donald Trump after a jury found the US president-elect liable for sexual assault and later defamation of the former columnist.

The ruling was issued by a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan.

OR May 2023 verdict stemmed from an incident around 1996 in a dressing room at a Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan, when Carol said Trump raped her. Posting on Truth Social in October 2022, Trump denied Carroll’s claim, calling it “ridiculous.”

Although jurors in Manhattan federal court did not find that Trump committed rape, they awarded the former Elle magazine columnist $2.02 million for sexual assault and $2.98 million for defamation.

A different court ordered Trump in January to pay Carroll $83.3 million for defamation in June 2019, when he first denied her rape claim.

In both denials, Trump said he didn’t know Carroll, “she wasn’t his type” and that he made up the rape allegation to promote her memoir. He is appealing the $83.3 million verdict.

Carroll’s cases continue despite Trump winning a second four-year term in the White House on Nov. 5.

The 1997in a case involving former President Bill Clinton, the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled that sitting presidents are not immune from civil suits in federal court for acts that precede and are unrelated to their official duties as president.

Trump’s lawyers argued that the $5 million verdict should be thrown out because the judge should not have let the jury hear testimony from two other women who accused Trump of sexual harassment.

One, businesswoman Jessica Lynch, said Trump groped her on a plane in the late 1970s. The other, former People magazine writer Natasha Stoynoff, said Trump forcibly kissed her at his estate in Mar-a-Lago in 2005.

Trump’s lawyers also said the judge shouldn’t have let jurors watch the 2005 “Access Hollywood” video in which Trump graphically bragged about “hitting” women.

Both trials were overseen by US District Judge Lewis Kaplan.