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Roberta Kaplan, the lawyer for former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll, claimed that Donald Trump had committed another crime on the stand during her client's civil defamation trial against the former president.
A New York City jury on Friday ordered that Trump must pay $83.3 million in damages to Carroll for statements made in 2019 when he claimed that she was lying about allegations that he sexually assaulted her inside a Manhattan department store dressing room in the 1990s. That amount includes $7.3 million in compensatory damages, $11 million for reputational repair, and $65 million in punitive damages. Trump was previously ordered to pay Carroll $5 million in damages last year in another civil defamation trial stemming from a denial he made about her claims in 2022.
The former president had long maintained his innocence in the case, even after the first jury found him liable for sexual abuse. After the verdict in the second trial, his lawyer, Alina Habba, claimed to the press that Trump's legal team was hamstrung in its ability to mount a defense, though legal experts and other pundits have questioned the validity of such claims.
"Absolutely ridiculous! I fully disagree with both verdicts, and will be appealing this whole Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on me and the Republican Party," Trump wrote in part about the verdict on Truth Social, his social media platform.
On Friday, Kaplan made an appearance on CNN where she discussed the verdict with host Anderson Cooper, during which time she said that that the former president, who remains the overwhelming favorite for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, had committed perjury during the course of the second trial.
When asked about Trump's time being called as a witness for his own defense, Kaplan said that a jury needs to be able to trust a witness when they hear their testimony, something she argued Trump did not during this trial, adding that the jury saw him commit perjury on the stand.
"He lied again on the stand. He again said 'I standby everything I said in my deposition which was I did nothing to E. Jean Carroll, never met her, she's a whack job, never heard of her,'" Kaplan said. "So he not only committed perjury, but the jury themselves saw him commit perjury."
She added: "And then they watched his deposition video, where he pointed out, as everyone knows, that famous photo of him, Ivana [Trump], and E. Jean and her then-husband, and he points to E. Jean and he says, 'That's Marla Maples.' And then, my favorite part of it is once he realizes he made a mistake, he says, 'Oh, it's a blurry photo.' And I said to the jury, 'you saw the photo...it's not a blurry photo.'"
Newsweek reached out to Trump's legal team on Saturday morning via email for comment.
It is not clear from the CNN comments by Kaplan whether or not she intends to pursue perjury charges against the former president. In New York state law, the highest degree of perjury charge can carry a punishment of three to seven years in prison and/or a fine of up to $5,000 if convicted.
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About the writer
Thomas Kika is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in upstate New York. His focus is reporting on crime and national ... Read more