It’s a ‘magic mindset’ that Trump is pushing a new sexual abuse trial, says Carroll

NEW YORK: Donald Trump’s push for a retrial in a civil case in which a Manhattan jury last month found that former U.S. President sexually abused and defamed author E. Gene Carroll is “magical.” It’s kind of like thinking,” Carroll’s lawyer said Thursday.

Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, asked for a new trial on June 8 after a jury sentenced Carroll to US$5 million. President Trump said Carroll’s damages were excessive, partly because the jury did not find rape against Carol and partly because her actions were not what she had been diagnosed with as mentally ill. rice field.

In court papers filed Thursday against Mr. Trump’s claims, Carroll’s lawyers said the attack impaired her ability to have romantic and sexual relationships and she suffered from intrusive memories.

They pointed to psychologist testimony at trial that Carol had symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

“Trump’s allegations are nothing more than the latest attempt to obfuscate the significance of jury verdicts with Trump’s idiosyncratic magical thinking,” the attorneys wrote.

Trump has also appealed the ruling. “We are confident we will win the appeal,” said Joseph Tacopina, one of his lawyers, on Thursday.

Carroll’s lawsuit, filed in 2022, alleges that President Trump defamed her by denying that he raped her backstage at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in the mid-1990s. Trump called Carroll’s allegations “hoaxed.”

Carroll, a former Elle magazine advice columnist, filed a separate lawsuit in November 2019 solely for defamation.

The lawsuit is bogged down in appeals over whether Trump can’t be sued because he was president when he spoke. Carroll said after a jury verdict in a 2022 lawsuit that President Trump called her account “fake” and labeled her a “horrible job” at CNN’s City Hall. and asked Trump for $10 million.

The case is one of several legal issues Trump faces as he seeks a return to the White House as the first sitting and former US president to face criminal charges.

Last week, he pleaded not guilty to 37 federal court charges of holding defense documents at a club in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, and obstructing an investigation into his actions. In April, he pleaded not guilty to charges in New York State for paying hush money to a porn star in 2016.