NEW YORK — A federal choose on Wednesday discovered Donald Trump answerable for defaming the author E. Jean Carroll by denying in 2019 that he had raped her, and stated jurors will determine solely how a lot the previous US president ought to pay in damages.
The determination by US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan comes forward of a scheduled Jan. 15, 2024, civil trial, after a jury in May ordered Trump to pay Carroll $5 million for sexual assault and a separate defamation.
That jury “considered and decided issues that are common to both cases,” and its verdict and the undisputed info “establish that Mr. Trump’s 2019 statements were made with actual malice,” Kaplan wrote.
Trump is interesting the May 9 jury verdict, in addition to Kaplan’s June 29 refusal to dismiss the present lawsuit, to the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan.
He has additionally individually pleaded not responsible to costs in 4 separate federal and state legal indictments, together with two for trying to reverse his 2020 election loss.
Despite the costs, Trump, 77, has a dominating lead for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Carroll, 79, a former Elle journal columnist, is looking for a further $10 million over Trump’s June 2019 denial that he raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman division retailer dressing room in Manhattan within the mid-Nineties.
Trump claimed he had by no means met Carroll, and that she made up the assault to spice up gross sales of her memoir, saying it “should be sold in the fiction section” and that it was “an absolute disgrace that she’s allowed to do that.”
Reputational hurt
In his 25-page determination, Kaplan stated the May 9 jury verdict eradicated the necessity to relitigate the alleged assault.
Kaplan additionally stated the decision precluded Trump from arguing that his June 2019 statements, which had been much like his October 2022 statements, weren’t defamatory.
The choose additionally rejected Trump’s declare that the sooner verdict meant any damages needs to be lowered as a result of Carroll shouldn’t get better twice.
Carroll has argued that Trump’s first defamation triggered her extra hurt, together with to her status, than his second.
Roberta Kaplan, a lawyer for Carroll, stated she seemed ahead to the Jan. 15 trial. She and the choose aren’t associated.
On Aug. 18, Judge Kaplan referred to as Trump’s attraction of his determination to let the second case go to trial “frivolous.”
That may lead to Trump owing damages and prices to Carroll if the appeals court docket agreed.
In his June 2019 statements, Trump additionally disparaged Carroll by saying “she’s not my type” and the alleged rape “never happened.”
The choose didn’t rule on whether or not these feedback had been defamatory, saying in a footnote that neither aspect adequately addressed whether or not he ought to rule earlier than trial.
The case is Carroll v Trump, US District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 20-07311. — Reuters
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
