Former US President Donald Trump was again found liable on Wednesday for defamation of the author who accuses him of rape, E. Jean Carroll, a decision paving the way for additional damages in this case. .
Donald Trump, who hopes to regain the White House in 2024, had already been found responsible last May by the jury of a civil court in New York for the “sexual assault” in 1996 of this former columnist for Elle magazine, and of defamation against him for remarks made in October 2022.
But E. Jean Carroll had also filed a complaint for previous statements by Donald Trump, in 2019, in the wake of his first accusations of rape contained in a book.
The then president of the United States claimed in June 2019 that the author had invented these accusations to “sell a new book”. That 2019 action had been delayed by procedural battles, but it ran its course and a second jury trial was set for January 15, 2024.
Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Court for the Southern District of New York already ruled on Wednesday, based on the decision rendered in May, that Donald Trump’s remarks in 2019 were also “defamatory”, “false” , and “malicious”.
This means that the jurisdiction of the jury will be limited to deciding the amount of damages Donald Trump will have to pay E. Jean Carroll.
“We remain very confident that the Carroll II judgment (the one that was rendered in May, editor’s note) will be overturned on appeal, which will make the decision (rendered on Wednesday) moot”, reacted one of the lawyers for Donald Trump, Alina Habba.
On the road to his eventual return to the White House, Donald Trump faces many legal setbacks. He was notably charged by the federal authorities with “conspiracy against the American state” for having tried to stay in power despite his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, and by the justice of Georgia for having tried to overturn the outcome of the ballot in this key state.
He is also being sued by federal justice in the White House Archives file, an investigation into his negligent handling of confidential documents.
09/06/2023 21:31:04 – New York (AFP) – © 2023 AFP