Former President Donald Trump has vowed to appeal Friday's verdict in the E. Jean Carroll defamation lawsuit that ordered him to pay $83.3 million in damages to the advice columnist.
“Absolutely ridiculous!” Trump Blame the truth social. “I completely disagree with both rulings and intend to challenge the entire Biden-led witch hunt focused on me and the Republican Party. Our legal system is out of control and being used as a political weapon. Masu.”
“They took away all of their First Amendment rights,” he continued. “This isn't America!”
The 45th president, 77, was ordered to pay $65 million in punitive damages, $11 in reputational damages and an additional $7.3 million in emotional damages, a jury in Manhattan federal court ruled. did.
Trump had already left the courtroom when the jury's verdict was announced.
His lawyer, Alina Haba, also condemned the verdict as she left the courtroom.
“Don't get it wrong, folks, we are witnessing a violation of the justice system,” she told reporters.
Haba argued that Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled before the trial began that “all of the defenses that President Trump was asserting were not allowed to be raised before the jury.”
President Trump was previously ordered to pay Carroll $5 million in May after a jury found him liable for sexually assaulting her in a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room in 1996. was.
He used his fingers to penetrate Ms. Carroll “forcibly and without her consent,” according to court records. Trump cleared Carroll of her claims that he raped her.
When Carroll went public with her allegations in 2019, President Trump quickly dismissed her claims as a “hoax” and accused her of a “terrible job.” As a result of his attack, she received death threats.
