TRUMP ATTACKS ‘RIDICULOUS CASE’
The verdict stemmed from Trump’s encounter around 1996 with Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan, and an October 2022 Truth Social post where he called Carroll’s claim a hoax.
Though jurors stopped short of finding that Trump raped Carroll, as she had claimed, they awarded the former Elle magazine advice columnist a respective US$2.02 million and US$2.98 million for sexual assault and defamation.
A different jury ordered Trump in January to pay Carroll US$83.3 million for having defamed her and damaging her reputation in June 2019 after she first accused him of rape.
Trump, 78, has consistently denied wrongdoing.
In both denials underlying Carroll’s lawsuits, Trump said he didn’t know Carroll, that she was “not my type,” and that she made up her story to promote her memoir.
Speaking to reporters after oral arguments, Trump suggested without evidence that a decades-old photo of him and Carroll, in which he once mistook Carroll for his second wife Marla Maples, may have been generated by artificial intelligence.
“It’s a ridiculous case,” Trump said. “It’s political interference, it’s a witch hunt.”
Trump is also appealing the US$83.3 million verdict.
Carroll, 80, also attended Friday’s arguments, wearing a dark blazer and suit with a navy blue hair ribbon. She and her lawyers did not talk with reporters after arguments ended.
