Former Elle magazine advice columnist E. Jean Carroll watches as Joe Tacopina, lawyer of former U.S. President Donald Trump, makes closing arguments during a civil trial where Carroll accuses Trump of raping her in a department store dressing room within the mid-Nineteen Nineties, and of defamation, in Latest York, May 8, 2023.
Jane Rosenberg | Reuters
Donald Trump on Thursday filed notice that he’ll appeal this week’s federal civil jury verdict holding the previous president accountable for sexually abusing and defaming author E. Jean Carroll.
Trump’s lawyers also said in that filing they’ll ask the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals to toss out the order for him to pay $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages to Carroll within the case.
Also on Thursday, Carroll’s lawyer told The Latest York Times that the author was considering filing a recent defamation lawsuit against Trump for saying the night before on a CNN town hall that her claim of being raped by him in a dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman department store within the Nineteen Nineties was “fake.”
“We have now to weigh the varied pros and cons and we’ll make a decision in the subsequent day or so, probably,” Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, told The Times.
If Carroll, 79, does file a recent suit, it might be her third defamation claim against Trump.
The second lawsuit was resolved Tuesday when a jury in U.S. District Court in Manhattan after lower than three hours of deliberations found he had sexually abused her, and in addition had defamed her last fall.
The primary lawsuit, which alleges Trump defamed her when he was president after she went public along with her rape claim in 2019, has been effectively on hold pending legal arguments over whether he will be held accountable for comments made when he served within the White House.
Trump’s notice of appeal was filed Thursday lower than an hour after the ultimate judgment of the jury verdict was entered on the Manhattan court’s docket.
The jury on Tuesday didn’t find there was a preponderance of evidence Trump raped Carroll. But its finding that he likely sexually abused her was enough to sustain her civil claim for battery.
Trump is the leading contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Trump, through the Latest Hampshire town hall hosted by CNN on Wednesday night, mocked Carroll, drawing laughter and cheers from the audience. Trump called Carroll a “whack job” through the town hall and again claimed her account of the events was “fake.”
“She wasn’t raped, OK?” Trump said. “And I didn’t do the rest either, OK, because I do not know who the hell she is.”
