A federal court judge in New York on Wednesday rejected Donald Trump’s offer for a new trial over E. Jean Carroll’s civil sexual assault and defamation allegations against the former president.
in 59 pages decisionUS District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan also denied Trump’s request to reduce the $5 million in damages a jury awarded Carroll earlier this year.
Kaplan wrote that Trump’s arguments that the $2 million he received for the sexual assault was «excessive» are «totally unconvincing.»
“There is no basis to disturb the jury’s sexual assault damages. And Mr. Trump’s arguments regarding defamation damages are no stronger,» Kaplan wrote.
A lawyer for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The former president has denied assaulting Carroll and is pending a separate appeal of the verdict.
Trump’s argument for a new trial or reduced award centered on the nine-member jury’s finding in May that Carroll, 79, had failed to prove «by a preponderance of the evidence» that Trump had raped her. in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s. The jury found Trump liable for another element of Carroll’s assault claim: sexual assault.
Trump’s lawyers argued that the finding could have been based on allegations that included «touching Plaintiff’s breasts through clothing or similar conduct, which is far from rape,» and that therefore the compensation for damages was excessive.
Kaplan called that argument «flippant» because «there was no evidence whatsoever that Mr. Trump touched Ms. Carroll’s breasts, through her clothing or otherwise.»
The magazine writer testified that Trump’s only sexual contact with her was when he entered her with his fingers and then his penis.
«The jury’s finding of sexual abuse necessarily implies that it found Mr. Trump forcibly penetrated her,» and therefore the damages are not excessive, the judge wrote.
Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said in a statement that her client «expects to receive the $5 million in damages awarded by the jury.»
“He also hopes to continue to hold Trump accountable for what he did to him at trial” for another civil defamation case against Trump that is scheduled to start in January next year.
That case involves statements Trump made about Carroll while he was president and after the $5 million jury verdict, including calling his claims a «hoax» on financial grounds.
Meanwhile, Trump filed a counterclaim against Carroll alleging that she defamed him by continuing to say that he raped her in public statements after the jury’s verdict.
In his ruling on Wednesday, Kaplan indicated that it may be a losing argument.
He noted that rape in New York criminal law «applies only to vaginal penetration with a penis,» a definition that is «far more limited than the meaning of ‘rape’ in common modern parlance, its definition in some dictionaries , in some federal and state governments». criminal statutes, and elsewhere».
«The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was ‘raped’ within the meaning of New York Criminal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her, as many people commonly understand the word. ‘rape’…’ In fact, as the evidence in the trial recounted below makes clear, the jury concluded that Mr. Trump did in fact do exactly that,” he wrote.