US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan found former US President Donald Trump liable for defamation after denying in 2019 that he had raped writer E. Jean Carroll. Now justice will also decide the fine that the former president must pay for damages. In May of this year, a jury had already ordered Trump to pay Carroll $5 million for sexual assault and separate defamation.
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The former president and US presidential candidate Donald Trump, who had already been found responsible by a jury in a civil court in New York for “sexual assault” on the journalist E. Jean Carroll and admonished with 5 million dollars in damages, now He is found guilty of defamation for the same case.
The ruling is intended to significantly expedite the second trial, scheduled for January 2024. The smears include comments Trump made in 2019, after Carroll publicly claimed for the first time that he sexually assaulted her in a dressing room after a chance encounter in a grocery store. luxury in 1996.
“The jury considered and decided issues that are common to both cases, including whether Mr. Trump falsely accused Ms. Carroll of fabricating her sexual assault plea,” US District Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote in Wednesday’s decision.
The court’s determination in May that Trump did indeed sexually abuse Carroll further established for federal judge Lewis Kaplan that Trump’s 2019 statements were false and defamatory.
What are Trump’s smears against E. Jean Carroll?
Trump belittled and revictimized Carroll in his June 2019 remarks, saying that “she was not his type” and that the rape “never happened.”
Carroll has argued that Trump’s first smear did more damage to him, including to his reputation, than the second. Roberta Kaplan, Carroll’s attorney, said she was looking forward to the January 15 trial.
For his part, on August 18, Judge Kaplan called Trump’s appeal of his decision to allow the second case to go to trial “frivolous.”
Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, said Wednesday that her legal team is confident the jury’s verdict will be overturned, questioning the judge’s new decision.
Trump, an early favorite for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is also seeking to stay the second trial while he waits for an appeals court to rule on his immunity because he was president when he made the comments in 2019.
At least for now, the second trial will begin on January 15.
Current status of the legal proceedings against Trump
Trump is appealing to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan the May 9 jury verdict that found him guilty of “sexual assault” of E. Jean Carroll.
The former president has also pleaded not guilty to charges in four separate federal and state criminal indictments, including two for trying to reverse his 2020 election defeat.
Carroll, a Trump victim and former Elle magazine columnist, is seeking an additional $10 million in June 2019 slander of Trump accusing Carroll of concocting the rape in a dressing room at a Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in mid-2019. The 1990s.
Trump claimed that he had never met Carroll and that she attacked him to make money.
Despite this new court decision and the previous accusations, Trump has a commanding lead for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Furthermore, the lawsuits against him do not prevent him from running for the White House.
The Carroll case is part of a series of legal problems facing Trump as he campaigns for a return to the White House.
Trump has to face four criminal charges in various cases. One of them is the attempt to subvert the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Others also includes inappropriate handling of top-secret documents; and falsifying records at his business to cover up a payment of money made to porn actress Stormy Daniels during his 2016 campaign. She claims they had a sexual encounter, which he denies.
Some of Trump’s criminal trials are scheduled to unfold in tandem with the presidential primary season.
With AP, Reuters and AFP
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