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Trump Denied New Trial in E. Jean Carroll Sexual Assault, Defamation Case

© AP Photo / Craig RuttleE. Jean Carroll is photographed, Sunday, June 23, 2019, in New York. Carroll, a New York-based advice columnist, claims Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in a dressing room at a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s. Trump denies knowing Carroll. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
E. Jean Carroll is photographed, Sunday, June 23, 2019, in New York. Carroll, a New York-based advice columnist, claims Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in a dressing room at a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s. Trump denies knowing Carroll. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle) - Sputnik International, 1920, 19.07.2023
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While the New York jury did not find Trump liable for raping Carroll as she claimed had happened in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s, they did find him liable for sexually abusing her in said department store, and she was awarded $5 million in total damages.
A federal judge on Wednesday rejected former US President Donald Trump’s request for a new trial in the civil case brought forward by writer E. Jean Carroll.
The former president had requested a new trial on the civil sexual assault and defamation case, which US District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan denied in a 59-page ruling. Kaplan also denied Trump’s request to reduce the $5 million that was previously awarded to Carroll.
“The jury in this case did not reach ‘a seriously erroneous result,” Kaplan said. “Its verdict is not ‘a miscarriage of justice.'"

"There is no basis for disturbing the jury’s sexual assault damages. And Mr. Trump’s arguments with respect to the defamation damages are no stronger," Kaplan wrote, adding that Trump’s arguments against awarding Carroll $2 million for sexual assault were “entirely unpersuasive.”

On May 9, a New York jury of six men and three women awarded Carroll $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages for sexual abusing Carroll in the 1990s, and then defaming her over social media last year by making repeated assertions the assault was a hoax, and claiming Carroll was mentally unstable.

Trump has also continued to make such claims following the trials verdict.

“Now that the court has denied Trump’s motion for a new trial or to decrease the amount of the verdict, E. Jean Carroll looks forward to receiving the $5 million in damages that the jury awarded her in Carroll II. She also looks forward to continuing to hold Trump accountable for what he did to her at the trial in Carroll I, which is scheduled to begin on January 15, 2024,” said Roberta Kaplan, an attorney for Carroll.
Trump currently has a separate appeal of the verdict pending, as well as a counterclaim against Carroll alleging she defamed him for alleging he raped her in public statements even after the jury’s verdict.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) - Sputnik International, 1920, 09.05.2023
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US Jury Rules Trump Liable for Sexual Abuse, Defamation in E. Jean Carroll Civil Case
However, the presiding judge explained that in New York criminal law the definition of rape is quite narrow, as it applies only to “vaginal penetration by a penis.” He added that its definition is wider in “common modern parlance,” “some dictionaries,” “federal and state criminal statutes, and elsewhere.”
"The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was 'raped' within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump 'raped' her as many people commonly understand the word 'rape.' Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that," he wrote.

Meanwhile, Carroll has a separate defamation lawsuit pending against Trump, the trial for which is scheduled for January 2024.

She is seeking new damages of at least $10 million, based partially on comments he had made during a town hall interview, in which he said he had never met or seen Carroll, and called her claims “fake” and “made up.”

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