A federal judge has dismissed Donald Trump’s defamation countersuit against the writer E Jean Carroll, whom he was found guilty of sexually abusing and defaming by a jury in May.
In his ruling on Monday, Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York shot down Trump’s claim that Carroll defamed him when she said on CNN after the verdict that Trump raped her.
“Based on all of the evidence at trial and the jury’s verdict as a whole, the jury’s finding that Mr Trump ‘sexually abused’ Ms Carroll implicitly determined that he forcibly penetrated her digitally ― in other words, that Mr Trump did in fact ‘rape’ Ms Carroll as that term commonly is used and understood in contacts outside of the New York Penal Law,” Kaplan wrote, granting Carroll’s request to dismiss the lawsuit.
The Manhattan jury concluded in May that Trump was guilty of sexually assaulting Carroll in a department store dressing room in the 1990s, awarding her $5 million in damages. It did not find Trump guilty of rape ― which New York penal law narrowly defines as forcible penetration with a penis.
However, Kaplan wrote in his ruling Monday, digital penetration with fingers “commonly is considered ‘rape’ in other contexts”.
Trump brought the countersuit against Carroll in June over remarks she made on CNN after the jury’s decision.
“Oh yes he did, oh yes he did,” Carroll recalled thinking after hearing the jury’s decision on her rape allegation. “He did it and you know it,” she recalled telling Trump’s legal team at the trial’s conclusion.
Trump alleged in his filing that Carroll’s statements were made “with actual malice and ill will with an intent to significantly and spitefully harm and attack” his image.
Trump, who is running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is facing a separate defamation lawsuit from Carroll over comments he made about her while he was president. It’s set to go to trial in January, around the time of the GOP Iowa caucus, with Carroll seeking at least $10 million in damages.
Carroll was allowed to amend that lawsuit to include comments Trump made at a Republican presidential town hall event the day after the jury’s decision in May.
“I have no idea who this woman — this is a fake story, made up story,” he said. He also called Carroll a “whack job”.
Kaplan’s ruling is the latest in an onslaught of legal woes for Trump. Last week, a grand jury indicted him for the third time in a matter of months, on federal charges related to his efforts to reverse his 2020 election defeat.