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A lawyer for Donald Trump has claimed the sexual battery and defamation suit filed against him by E. Jean Carroll was an "un-American" attempt to derail his 2024 campaign for the White House.
A jury in the New York civil case found that the former president had sexually abused Carroll at a Bergdorf Goodman department store in the mid-1990s, then defamed her character by branding her a "liar."
The jury, who deliberated for just under three hours on Tuesday, ruled that Trump must pay Carroll a total of $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages. The jury did not find Trump liable over allegations that he had raped Carroll, a former Elle columnist
Trump, who was not present during the proceedings, denied the accusations. In a post on Truth Social, he said the verdict was a "disgrace" and the "continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all-time."
Since 2016 more than a dozen women have publicly accused the former president of sexual offenses, but this is the first time he has been found legally responsible. As it was a civil trial, Trump could not be criminally prosecuted if found liable, nor will he be required to register as a sex offender.
Carroll filed the sexual battery lawsuit under the Adult Survivors Act—a law that New York passed in May 2022, giving adults who allege sexual assault one year to bring lawsuits even if the statute of limitations has expired.
On Tuesday night, Trump's attorney Alina Habba was asked by CNN's Dana Bash about the law and whether the one-year deadline should be scrapped.
Habba responded that the law was "indefensible," adding that Carroll was able to file a suit against Trump despite not knowing precisely when in the 1990s the incident had occurred.
Habba said: "There are things called justice. And people have the right to go to courts and go to prisons and go to police officers and say 'I was raped, I was assaulted.' That is your right and you should take that right if you were assaulted or if you were raped.
"What you are not allowed to do is say 'I don't have a year, I don't have a date. I'm not sure if it happened. I'm not sure when it happened. And guess what? It was in Bergdorf Goodman, but he lived across the street and nobody saw it.' And now you're 30 years deep."
Habba also suggested that Carroll's allegations, published in her 2019 book What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal, were made for political reasons, and that she had filed her lawsuit because the former president is running for the White House again.
"When she first said it in 2019, she didn't like him as a candidate. And now she's gonna say it again when in 2024 when he's a leading candidate. You're not allowed to do that. That is un-American. So, no, this isn't about rape victims. This is about politics."
Carroll's attorney has been contacted via email for comment.
The civil trial concluded a month after Trump became the first U.S. president in history to be charged with a crime. On April 4, he pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records over alleged hush money paid to Stormy Daniels.
Despite his legal issues, Trump is still the overwhelming favorite to clinch the GOP nomination in 2024. A Morning Consult poll on May 9 found the former president was leading his potential biggest challenger, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, by 41 points (60 to 19 percent).
Later in the CNN interview, Habba was asked whether the Carroll verdict means Trump could face "criminal action" from other women who have accused Trump of sexual assault.
Habba replied that those allegations were also politically motivated and accused Bash of "desperation" for bringing up "2016 things."
She said: "I think you are concerned that [Trump] is going to win, which is why you are bringing up 2016 things, because you have nothing to bring up. And you should be concerned. He is leading in the polls."
Trump's team expressed a similar sentiment after the jury's verdict.
"The Democratic Party's neverending 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," a Trump spokesperson told Newsweek.
"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."
In a statement after the jury ruled in her favor on the assault and defamation claims, Carroll said: "Today, the world finally knows the truth.
"This victory is not just for me but for every woman who has suffered because she was not believed."
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