(AmericanProsperity.com) – A federal judge in New York found on September 6 that former commander-in-chief Donald Trump is liable for defaming writer and journalist E. Jean Carroll by denying in 2019 that he had sexually assaulted her. The judge also noted that jurors will decide how much money the Republican presidential candidate owes her in damages.
Manhattan US District Judge Lewis Kaplan’s decision comes ahead of a January 15, 2024, civil trial, after a jury ordered the former president in May to pay the writer $5 million for rape and a separate defamation. Kaplan wrote that the jury’s verdicts and the “undisputed facts” establish that the Republican leader’s statements in 2019 were made “with malice.”
Trump is currently appealing the May jury verdict, as well as the judge’s refusal to dismiss the current lawsuit to Manhattan’s 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals. The presidential candidate also pleaded not guilty to different charges in four state and federal criminal indictments, including two for trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election’s results.
The 79-year-old writer is also seeking $10 million over his June 2019 denial that he sexually assaulted her in the dressing of a Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan. Trump has repeatedly claimed he had never met her and that she made up these claims to increase the sales of her latest memoirs. The presidential candidate has also said this book should be in “the fiction section,” and noted it’s a “disgrace” Carroll was allowed “to do that.”
In a statement, Trump’s attorney Alina Habba said that if the appeals court rules in her client’s favor in the earlier case, this would nullify Kaplan’s ruling. Habba explained she and Trump remain confident that the verdict will eventually be overturned on appeal. She then anticipated that the Second Circuit would temporarily halt this trial while it examines the valid defenses presented by Trump’s legal team.
Despite these charges, Trump’s popularity among Republicans remains intact. All polls show he’s the main favorite to win the GOP nomination, with a massive lead over Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
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