Donald Trump has again been found liable for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll.
Judge Lewis Kaplan of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled Wednesday that it was already clear Trump had defamed Carroll by saying she was lying about being sexually assaulted by him in the 1990s, according to national news outlets. Therefore, a trial set for January will determine only the amount of damages Trump owes, Kaplan said.
In a separate civil trial in May, a jury ruled that Trump had sexually abused Carroll and defamed her by claiming she was lying. “The truth or falsity of Mr. Trump’s 2019 statements therefore depends — like the truth or falsity of his 2022 statement — on whether Ms. Carroll lied about Mr. Trump sexually assaulting her. The jury’s finding that she did not therefore is binding in this case and precludes Mr. Trump from contesting the falsity of his 2019 statements,” Kaplan wrote.
The comments at issue in the case Kaplan ruled on came in 2019, and the previous case involved Trump’s 2022 remarks. In the latter case, Carroll was awarded $5 million in damages, combining damages for sexual abuse and for defamation. Trump is appealing that ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Trump made the 2019 statements in light of a book excerpt in which Carroll said he raped her in a department store dressing room in New York in the 1990s. He called her allegations “totally false,” claimed he’d never met her, and said she wasn’t his “type.” His 2022 comments, which figured in May’s verdict, included postings on his Truth Social platform saying that her accusations were a “complete con job” and “a Hoax and a lie.” Judge Kaplan ruled that all these statements were “substantially the same.”
Kaplan turned down a request by Trump’s lawyers to reduce the damages allowable in the latest case because of the $5 million awarded in the previous one.
Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge), issued this statement: “We look forward to trial limited to damages for the original defamatory statements Donald Trump made about our client E. Jean Carroll in 2019.” Kaplan, a lesbian, is noted for her advocacy for marriage equality, having won the Supreme Court case that took down the Defense of Marriage Act in 2013.
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