A federal judge quashed Donald Trump’s counter-defamation case against E. Jean Carroll for statements she made on CNN, yet another legal failure for the former president, who is currently drowning in lawsuits and mounting legal fees.
In her lawsuit against Trump, Carroll had alleged sexual abuse and was awarded $5 million by a jury under the Adult Survivors Act that found the former president guilty. Later, on CNN, she was asked to comment on the verdict that found Trump guilty of sexual abuse and not rape as defined under New York state law. However, Carroll responded, “Oh, yes he did.”
Trump filed a defamation lawsuit against her for the comments.
Judge Lewis Kaplan, however, ruled against Trump. In his order, Kaplan wrote, “Indeed, the jury’s verdict in [the] Carroll [case] establishes, as against Mr. Trump, the fact that Mr. Trump ‘raped her,’ albeit digitally rather than with his penis. Thus, it establishes against him the substantial truth of Ms Carroll’s ‘rape’ accusations.”
He said that there is “no merit to Mr. Trump’s argument that the jury’s finding on Penal Law ‘rape’ question established that Ms. Carroll’s statements were false even if her statements reasonably could be construed as referring to ‘rape’ in that specialized Penal Law sense, a subject on which this Court now expresses no view.”
Judge Kaplan previously rejected Trump’s appeal for a new trial.
Carroll has also filed another lawsuit against Trump for comments made by him in 2019 while he still held office, for which Trump is set to go to trial in January.
Carroll’s lawsuits come on top of the many problems the former president is currently facing. He is charged in three indictments for different alleged crimes and is awaiting a fourth one in Georgia.
