Trump Appeals E. Jean Carroll Sexual Abuse Verdict
Attorneys for Donald Trump filed an appeal Thursday afternoon against a jury’s decision to find him liable for sexual battery and defamation against author E. Jean Carroll.
Trump was ordered to pay Carroll $5 million in damages in a civil trial brought by the author, who alleged that the former president had raped her in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodmans in the Nineties.
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The former president refused to testify before the court during the trial — and later falsely claimed he hadn’t been allowed to take the stand — and spent the proceedings raging against Carroll on social media and taking international golf trips.
On Wednesday, Trump publicly addressed the court’s decision during a CNN town hall. The former president accused Carroll of being a “whack job” with “a fake story,” and mocked her allegations.
At one point Trump claimed her story was implausible because he was too famous to visit department stores without being recognized. “I was very famous then and I owned the Plaza Hotel right next door and I owned the buildings around it — I’m not going into a dressing room of a crowded department store,” Trump said.
In response to his comments, Carroll has indicated that she is weighing filing another defamation suit against Trump.
“Everything’s on the table, obviously, and we have to give serious consideration to it,” Roberta Kaplan, Carroll’s attorney, told the New York Times. “We have to weigh the various pros and cons and we’ll come to a decision in the next day or so, probably.”
In response to Tuesday’s verdict, Trump’s attorney indicated that the former president would be filing an appeal.
Attorney Joe Tacopina said former President Donald Trump is planning to appeal the verdict in the NY civil trial involving E. Jean Carroll pic.twitter.com/j6Sd1hhXfE
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) May 10, 2023
“There’s plenty of issues to appeal,” Joe Tacopina, Trump’s lawyer, told reporters outside of the courthouse. “I’m not happy that he was found liable for anything whatsoever,” he added.
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