🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
Donald Trump has lashed out at E. Jean Carroll and his defamation civil trial after the former Elle columnist testified against him in court on Wednesday.
In a series of posts on Truth Social, Trump attacked the case, in which the former president is accused of defaming Carroll while denying that he sexually assaulted her at a Bergdorf Goodman store in New York in the 1990s, as a "hoax" while again saying the incident never took place.
The civil trial in New York is separate to the sexual battery and defamation lawsuit that Carroll previously won against Trump. In May 2023, a different jury ruled Trump was liable for sexually abusing Carroll at the department store and then defaming her character while denying the assault took place. Trump was ordered to pay Carroll $5 million in damages.
Carroll is seeking $10 million damages in this defamation suit, which focuses on Trump's statements made in 2019 denying the assault, including that Carroll made up the attack to sell copies of her book. Trump is arguing that the remarks he gave while president denying the assault took place are protected under absolute immunity as they fell under the scope of his official duties.
During Wednesday's proceedings, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan threatened to remove Trump from the court after he repeatedly and loudly spoke with his lawyers while Carroll was on the witness stand. Trump attorney Alina Habba unsuccessfully requested a mistrial, accusing Carroll of deleting evidence after the writer admitted deleting emails that were critical of her coming forward with her claims against Trump.
In his lengthy social media posts, Trump made made reference to part of Carroll's testimony in which she said she purchased a gun and kept it by her bed because she was concerned for her safety in the years after Trump began publicly attacking her over the sexual assault claims.
"Now that E. Jean Carroll has admitted to illegally deleting and destroying mountains of evidence (as well as, it seems, unlawfully owning a gun and buying ammunition!), if Judge Lewis Kaplan does the right and PATRIOTIC thing, he will immediately dismiss the current Election Interfering Witch Hunt Trial, and reverse the unfair and biased result in the first Sham Trial, which was forced upon a very popular and successful President of the United States of America (ME!)," Trump wrote.
"The Crooked Joe Biden-directed Conspiracy of Hoaxes and Scams is falling apart like a rotten House of Cards. Make America Great Again!"
Kaplan ruled last September that Trump had defamed Carroll with his 2019 comments, and the proceedings in New York will mainly determine the size of the penalty against the former president.
Trump dismissed the case in another Truth Social post, as well as Carroll's attorney, Roberta Kaplan, who is not related to the judge.
"I've said it once & I'll say it again, a thousand times. Until this ridiculous Hoax was revealed to me by the Fake News Media, I never heard of E. Jean Carroll, never had anything to do with her, never would want to have anything to do with her, never brought her into a LOCKED changing room of a crowded NYC Department Store (directly opposite the checkout booth!), & NEVER TOUCHED HER, OR IN ANY WAY WOULD WANT TO TOUCH HER," Trump said.
"The whole story is a MADE UP & DISGUSTING HOAX! Like the now fully discredited RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA HOAX, & all of the others, this one is also conceived, funded, & carried out by Democrat Political Operatives like her lawyer (who I just beat in another SCAM case!), Roberta Kaplan."
Roberta Kaplan has been contacted for comment via email.
On Wednesday, Trump had to repeatedly be told by the judge to keep his voice down as he was heard dismissing the allegations against him as a "con" and a "witch hunt" while Carroll was testifying.
"Mr Trump, I hope I don't have to consider excluding you from the trial," Kaplan told the former president. "I understand you are probably very eager for me to do that."
"I would love it, I would love it," Trump replied. When the judge suggested to Trump that: "You can't control yourself in this circumstance, apparently," the Republican responded: "You can't either."
Trump is under no obligation to attend the civil trial in person, and he wasn't present during the other proceedings in New York involving Carroll.
In a separate Truth Social post, Trump suggested he should not have listened to the advice of his lawyers and attended last year's civil trial to speak out against the judge.
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About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, and Florida ... Read more