Judge finds Trump liable for defamation in E Jean Carroll's second lawsuit

A US federal judge on Wednesday (September 6) found former US president Donald Trump liable for defamation of writer E Jean Carroll through his denial in 2019 that he had raped her. The judge said that jurors will decide how much the former US president should pay in damages.

The decision has come from US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan ahead of a civil trial scheduled for January 15, 2024. In May this year, a jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll USD 5 million for sexual assault and separate defamation.

That jury "considered and decided issues that are common to both cases," and its verdict and the undisputed facts "establish that Mr. Trump's 2019 statements were made with actual malice," Kaplan wrote.

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Trump is appealing the jury verdict delivered on May 9 as well as Judge Kaplan's refusal to dismiss the current lawsuit, to the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan.

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Trump has also separately pleaded not guilty to charges in four separate federal and state criminal indictments. These include two for attempting to reverse his defeat in the 2020 US Presidential Election.

In spite of his troubles, Trump remains the favourite to win the Republican Party nomination for US Presidential Election 2024.

Carroll, a former columnist at Elle magazine, is seeking an additional USD 10 million in damages over Trump's 2019 denial that he rapedher in the Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan in the mid-1990s.

Trump claimed that he and Carroll had never met. He alleged that she made up the attack in order to boost sales of her book. He said that her book, a memoir, "should be sold in the fiction section" and that it was "an absolute disgrace that she's allowed to do that."

Kaplan said in his 25-page decision that the May 9 jury verdict eliminated the need to relitigate the alleged attack.

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Kaplan also said the verdict precluded Trump from arguing that his June 2019 statements, which were similar to his October 2022 statements, were not defamatory.

The judge also rejected Trump's claim that the earlier verdict meant any damages should be reduced because Carroll should not recover twice.

(With inputs from agencies)

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