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Former President Donald Trump used social media to attack E. Jean Carroll for the beginning of his second defamation trial Tuesday in New York City.
"After a historic win in Iowa, I am going to the Biden encouraged Witch Hunt in Lower Manhattan to fight against a FAKE Case from a woman I have never met, seen, or touched [Celebrity Lines don't count!]," Trump posted at 8:56 a.m. "Naturally, it starts right after Iowa, and during the very important New Hampshire Primary where, despite their sinister attempts, I will be tonight!"
The new proceedings began with jury selection, following a civil trial that concluded last May in which a jury found the former president liable for sexually abusing and defaming the former Elle columnist. Trump has denied sexually assaulting Carroll at a Bergdorf Goodman department store in the 1990s in New York.
The impetus for that trial were statements Trump made in 2019, regarding Carroll's sexual assault allegations, in which he said, "She's not my type," and suggested she was trying to financially benefit from such accusations. The new trial, coming after repeated Trump remarks allegedly defamed Carroll again, will determine how much Carroll will receive in damages.
Trump's Truth Social account, followed by 6.56 million users, posted myriad videos, interview quotes and past statements made by Carroll regarding sex, male-female relations, and her personal life between 8:56 a.m. and his 9:42 a.m. entrance—all leading to prospective jurors entering the courtroom.
Less than five minutes after he entered the court, Trump's account posted that "Clinton-appointed" U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan should end the "American injustice" against him, reiterating his defense that he never met, saw or touched Carroll.
"I have been considered an A-List celebrity for many decades, so even decades ago, since no one knows which date or dates to refer to, because the accusing woman can't say the day, month, season, year, or decade, it would have been impossible for me to walk into a crowded department store [surrounded by buildings I own], right opposite the cashiers' checkout desk, without being written about on Page Six, and every other outlet at the time," Trump wrote.
"Remember, those gossip columnists were, perhaps, even more vicious and obsessed than the Internet of today."
Newsweek reached out to lawyers for Trump and Carroll via email for comment.
"[Carroll] has been 'all over the place' on the timing of this alleged 'incident,' which never took place, and is being coached by Lunatic Radical Left Democrat operative attorney, Roberta Kaplan, who has sued me before, and just lost," Trump wrote in another post. "I am the only one who has been injured by this attempted EXTORTION."
"How do you know your 'unwanted sexual advance' is unwanted, until you advance it?" read a tweet written by Carroll in 2015, as posted by Trump.
"Everything interesting on Twitter is about sex," Carroll wrote in January 2014, again reposted by Trump.
Trump also shared snippets of a 2019 Vanity Fair interview of Carroll, in which she discussed flashing "the most popular professor" on her college campus and admitted to sexually harassing former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, whom she said she "adored." The interview was conducted just days after the 2019 allegations involving Trump and his alleged actions at Bergdorf Goodman.
"Those attacks will be part of E. Jean Carroll's case about why she is entitled to major punitive damages from Trump, just as Freeman and Moss successfully argued re. Rudy's statements on the first day of his DC defamation trial," New York University law professor Andrew Weissmann wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Weissmann was referring to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's defamation trial in which Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea "Shaye" Moss were rewarded $148 million in damages after he repeatedly made false claims about them.
On Friday, Roberta Kaplan filed a four-page request for the judge to "take robust prophylactic measures to ensure that Mr. Trump does not present inadmissible, prejudicial, or otherwise improper information to the jury." She previously declined to comment to Newsweek.
Her concerns were linked to the statements made by the former president inside and outside the courtroom in relation to his civil fraud trial, which concluded last week, insisting that Trump would "sow chaos" in these newest proceedings.
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About the writer
Nick Mordowanec is a Newsweek investigative reporter based in Michigan. His focus includes U.S. and international politics and policies, immigration, ... Read more