Current:Home > MyJudge blocks Trump lawyers from arguing about columnist’s rape claim at upcoming defamation trial-DB Wealth Institute B2 Expert Reviews
Judge blocks Trump lawyers from arguing about columnist’s rape claim at upcoming defamation trial
View Date:2024-12-23 19:48:23
NEW YORK (AP) — A judge late Saturday said former President Donald Trump’s lawyers can’t present legal arguments to a jury assessing damages at a defamation trial on a jury’s conclusion last year that he didn’t rape a columnist in the mid-1990s.
U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan made the determination in an order in advance of a Jan. 16 trial to determine defamation damages against Trump after a jury concluded Trump sexually abused columnist E. Jean Carroll but did not find evidence was sufficient to conclude that he raped her.
Trump, speaking in Iowa on Saturday as the Republican frontrunning presidential candidate in advance of a Jan. 15 primary, criticized the judge as a “radical Democrat” and mocked E. Jean Carroll for not screaming when she was attacked. “It was all made up,” he said.
Carroll, 80, won a $5 million award last May from a jury that concluded Trump sexually abused her in 1996 in a luxury department store dressing room and defamed her in 2022.
Trump did not attend the Manhattan trial where Carroll testified that a chance encounter at a Bergdorf Goodman store across the street from Trump Tower was flirtatious and fun until he slammed her against a wall in a dressing room and attacked her sexually. Trump has vehemently denied it.
In this month’s trial, a jury will consider whether damages should be levied against Trump for remarks he made after last year’s verdict and in 2019 while he was president after Carroll spoke publicly for the first time about her mid-1990s claims in a memoir.
Carroll’s lawyers had asked the judge to issue the order, saying that Trump’s attorneys should not be allowed to confuse jurors this month about last year’s verdict by trying to argue that the jury disbelieved Carroll’s rape claim.
They said the jury’s finding reflected its conclusion that Trump had forcibly and without consent digitally penetrated Carroll’s vagina, which does not constitute rape under New York state law but which constitutes rape in other jurisdictions.
Carroll’s lawyers said the “sting of the defamation was Mr. Trump’s assertions that Ms. Carroll’s charge of sexual abuse was an entirely untruthful fabrication and one made up for improper or even nefarious reasons.”
A lawyer for Trump did not immediately return a message Saturday.
Carroll is seeking $10 million in compensatory damages and substantially more in unspecified punitive damages at the trial. She will testify and Trump is listed as a witness. The trial is expected to last about a week.
Meanwhile, Trump has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges in four indictments, two of which accuse him of seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, as well as a classified documents case and charges that he helped arrange a payoff to porn actor Stormy Daniels to silence her before the 2016 presidential election.
veryGood! (8523)
Related
- Amazon Black Friday 2024 sales event will start Nov. 21: See some of the deals
- U.K. says Russia likely training dolphins in Ukraine's occupied Crimean peninsula to counter enemy divers
- Nearly 2 In 3 Americans Are Dealing With Dangerous Heat Waves
- How Marlon Wayans Is Healing Days After His Dad Howell Wayans' Death
- NFL MVP rankings: Does Steelers QB Russell Wilson deserve any consideration?
- Countries Promised To Cut Greenhouse Emissions, The UN Says They Are Failing
- Lewis Capaldi announces break from touring amid Tourette's struggle: The most difficult decision of my life
- Taylor Swift announces new Eras Tour dates in Europe, Australia and Asia
- How many dog breeds are there? A guide to groups recognized in the US
- Chloe Bailey's Dream Role Is Playing This Superhero in a Marvel Movie
Ranking
- Trading wands for whisks, new Harry Potter cooking show brings mess and magic
- 84-Degree Ocean Waters Will Turn Sam Into A Major Hurricane On Saturday
- Climate Change Destroyed A Way Of Life On The Once-Idyllic Greek Island Of Evia
- Water is scarce in California. But farmers have found ways to store it underground
- Horoscopes Today, November 11, 2024
- Shop 15 Ways To Strut Your Stuff for National Walking Day
- July Was The Hottest Month In Recorded Human History
- You'll Be On The Floor When You Hear Ben Affleck Speaking Fluent Spanish
Recommendation
-
Multi-State Offshore Wind Pact Weakened After Connecticut Sits Out First Selection
-
Our Future On A Hotter Planet Means More Climate Disasters Happening Simultaneously
-
Children born in 2020 will experience up to 7 times more extreme climate events
-
Enough With The Climate Jargon: Scientists Aim For Clearer Messages On Global Warming
-
Who's hosting 'SNL' tonight? Musical guest, start time, where to watch Nov. 9 episode
-
California Wildfires Make A Run Toward A Giant Sequoia Grove
-
Drugs rain down on countryside after French fighter jet intercepts tourist plane
-
Heat is killing workers in the U.S. — and there are no federal rules to protect them