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Former President Donald Trump issued a two-sentence statement on Tuesday in response to the jury's verdict in the civil lawsuit filed by former columnist E. Jean Carroll.
"I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS. THIS VERDICT IS A DISGRACE - A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!" Trump wrote in a post on his TruthSocial account.
Trump's post came shortly after a jury in Manhattan found the former president liable for sexually abusing Carroll. The jury found that Trump did not rape Carroll as she previously claimed he did in a dressing room in the 1990s, but did decide to award Carroll with $5 million, the Associated Press reported. It also determined that he defamed Carroll when he called her allegations a "con job" in an October 2022 Truth Social post. Carroll was awarded $5 million in total damages for her claims against Trump, with $2 million in compensatory damages for the battery claim.
Following the verdict, a Trump spokesperson told Newsweek in a statement, "The Democratic Party's never-ending witch-hunt of President Trump hit a new low today. In jurisdictions wholly controlled by the Democratic Party our nation's justice system is now compromised by extremist left-wing politics. We have allowed false and totally made-up claims from troubled individuals to interfere with our elections, doing great damage."
The statement continued, "Make no mistake, this entire bogus case is a political endeavor targeting President Trump because he is now an overwhelming front-runner to be once again elected President of the United States...Sadly, for the enemies of American freedom and democracy, President Trump will never stop fighting for the American people, no matter what the radical Democrats dream up next. This case will be appealed, and we will ultimately win."
Trump has continued to deny the allegations made by Carroll but the jury found that Trump's past comments calling Carroll's allegations a "con job" were defamatory to her.
Earlier on Tuesday, Trump responded to the case in another TruthSocial post where he said, "Waiting for a jury decision on a False Accusation where I, despite being a current political candidate and leading all others in both parties, am not allowed to speak or defend myself, even as hard nosed reporters scream questions about this case at me. In the meantime, the other side has a book falsely accusing me of Rape, & is working with the press. I will therefore not speak until after the trial, but will appeal the Unconstitutional silencing of me, as a candidate, no matter the outcome!"
Last week, Trump said that he planned to travel to New York City to testify in the case saying, "I have to leave Ireland and I have to leave Scotland, where I have great properties...I have to go back for a woman that made a false accusation about me, and I have a judge who is extremely hostile...And I'm going to go back, and I'm going to confront this. This woman is a disgrace, and it shouldn't be allowed to happen in our country."
However, Trump missed the deadline imposed by U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan and never testified in the trial.
Update 05/09/23 4:19 p.m. ET: This article was updated with more information.
About the writer
Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In ... Read more