Trump Rages After Sexual Assault Verdict: ‘A DISGRACE’
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Donald Trump is not happy that a jury determined he sexually abused and defamed E. Jean Carroll.
“I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS,” the former president ranted on Truth Social minutes after the jury handed down the verdict. “THIS VERDICT IS A DISGRACE – A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!”
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Trump taking the Carroll jury’s verdict exactly how you’d expect him to pic.twitter.com/RDXyPj8QJ6
— nikki mccann ramírez (@NikkiMcR) May 9, 2023
Trump added to Fox News that he plans to appeal the ruling. “We’ll appeal. We got treated very badly by the Clinton-appointed judge,” Trump said. “And [Carroll] is a Clinton person too.”
Trump’s team released a more fleshed-out response, calling the case part of a political ploy perpetrated by Democrats to keep the former president from winning back the White House.
Trump’s team is out with a lengthy document responding to the Carroll verdict, starting with a statement from a Trump spox: pic.twitter.com/1R0tuCMP4t
— Shelby Talcott (@ShelbyTalcott) May 9, 2023
Trump wasn’t done on Truth Social, either. “VERY UNFAIR TRIAL!” he added later.
“WHAT ELSE CAN YOU EXPECT FROM A TRUMP HATING, CLINTON APPOINTED JUDGE, WHO WENT OUT OF HIS WAY TO MAKE SURE THAT THE RESULT WAS AS NEGATIVE AS IT COULD POSSIBLY BE, SPEAKING TO, AND IN CONTROL OF, A JURY FROM AN ANTI-TRUMP AREA WHICH IS PROBABLY THE WORST PLACE IN THE U.S. FOR ME TO GET A FAIR ‘TRIAL,'” he wrote after that.
Trump read the text of his Truth Social in a video released on the platform, adding that the whole thing was “a scam, and its a sham, and a disgrace to our country.”
Donald Trump's angry rant about the verdict is exactly what you would expect:
"I don't even know who this woman is. I have no idea who she is or where she came from. This is another scam. It's a political witch hunt." pic.twitter.com/GaXT7GnOmc— Republican Accountability (@AccountableGOP) May 10, 2023
The jury of six men and three woman only needed a few hours to find Trump liable of battery and defamation, ruling that he pay Carroll a total of $5 million. The jury did not, however, find that Carroll was able to prove Trump raped her. Carroll first accused Trump of doing so in 2019, claiming the assault took place in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s. Carroll sued Trump for defamation later in 2019, and for battery late last year under New York’s new Adult Survivors Act.
Trump railed about the case ahead of the jury commencing its deliberation earlier on Tuesday. “Waiting for a jury decision on a False Accusation where I, despite being a current political candidate and leading all others in both parties, am not allowed to speak or defend myself, even as hard nosed reporters scream questions about this case at me,” the former president wrote on Truth Social. “In the meantime, the other side has a book falsely accusing me of Rape, & is working with the press. I will therefore not speak until after the trial, but will appeal the Unconstitutional silencing of me, as a candidate, no matter the outcome!”
In reality, Trump declined the opportunity to defend himself in court on multiple occasions, first when his legal team informed Judge Lewis Kaplan last week that they would not be presenting a defense, and again after Kaplan allowed Trump until Sunday evening to request to defend himself. Kaplan had already warned Trump’s team about the former president’s social media activity, telling Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina that his client was “tampering with a new source of potential liability” by bashing Carroll on social media. The warning came the same day Trump called the allegations against him a “made up SCAM” and accused Carroll’s lawyer of being a “political operative.”
Trump’s claim on Tuesday that he has “ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS” is dubious. He’s been photographed with Carroll, and during his deposition he confused her for his second wife.
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