A federal judge in New York on Thursday rejected former President Donald Trump’s request for a new trial in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case against him and upheld the verdict and award in the case.

Carroll, a longtime advice columnist, accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in a department store in the 1990s. Trump vehemently denied the allegations. In May of last year, a jury found Trump liable for sexually assaulting Carroll and awarded her $5 million; in a separate civil case, a jury awarded her $83.3 million for statements he made as president denying the assault.

Trump appealed the verdict in March and posted a nearly $92 million bond. 

In his decision on Thursday, Judge Lewis Kaplan said that Trump's motion for a new trial is "without merit."

"Contrary to the defendant's arguments, Ms. Carroll's compensatory damages were not awarded solely for her emotional distress; they were not for garden variety harms; and they were not excessive," Kaplan wrote, later adding that Trump's "malicious and unceasing attacks" on her "were disseminated to more than 100 million people."

"They included public threats and personal attacks, and they endangered Ms. Carroll’s health and safety," he continued. "The jury was entitled to conclude that Mr. Trump derailed the career, reputation, and emotional well-being of one of America’s most successful and prominent advice columnists and authors."

"Mr. Trump’s argument is entirely without merit both as a matter of law and as a matter of fact," Kaplan later added.

The ruling was issued on a very busy day in the ex-president and pesumptive Republican nominee's legal calendar, coming as the Supreme Court heard arguments in Trump's immunity appeal in a federal election subversion case against him and as jurors heard witness testimony in his New York hush money trial.