Former President Donald Trump (File Photo by: zz/Andrea Renault/STAR MAX/IPx 2023 10/18/23); E. Jean Carroll leaving the United States District Courthouse poses for a group photo with her legal team after a jury awarded her $83.3 Million in damages incurred through defamation. (Photo by Derek French / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)
Even though he’s been found liable for defamation and sexual abuse and lost two cases he is currently appealing, former President Donald Trump continues to say on the airwaves that columnist E. Jean Carroll’s “story” of a mid-1990s Bergdorf Goodman department store attack is “fictional,” all but daring the plaintiff’s lawyers to file a third lawsuit.
In his latest remarks fresh off his felony hush-money convictions in Manhattan, Trump told Newsmax’s Greg Kelly on Tuesday that he’s “never met” Carroll other than the time a photo documented him meeting Carroll, a photo of her he memorably confused for his ex-wife Marla Maples during a deposition.
This photograph of Donald Trump and E. Jean Carroll at a party was embedded in her complaint.
In a broadside against the justice system, which he referred to as a “cabal,” Trump first criticized Juan Merchan, his hush-money trial judge, Arthur Engoron, the New York judge in his civil fraud case, and Lewis Kaplan, the federal judge in the Carroll cases.
“It’s so badly hurting the state of New York what [Merchan’s] done, but I had it done with two other judges,” he said. “Judge Engoron and Judge Kaplan. This is a cabal. This is a terrible thing that’s happening.”
“Giving a woman that I have no idea — you know that case, no idea — other than the fact that she had a picture taken many, many years ago. I’ve never met this woman. I don’t know this woman,” Trump said, referring to Carroll without naming her. “And I’m supposed to pay a ridiculous amount of money for a fictional story.”
“And, Judge Engoron. I built a great company. The company turned out to be much better than anybody ever thought, and he fined me almost $500 million dollars,” he added.
The remarks about Carroll were similar to those that Trump made in a Memorial Day post on Truth Social in which he said that the photo proving he once met Carroll “doesn’t count” as a meeting.
“Happy Memorial Day to All, including the Human Scum that is working so hard to destroy our Once Great Country, & to the Radical Left, Trump Hating Federal Judge in New York that presided over, get this, TWO separate trials, that awarded a woman, who I never met before (a quick handshake at a celebrity event, 25 years ago, doesn’t count!), 91 MILLION DOLLARS for ‘DEFAMATION,”” the social media post said. “She didn’t know when the so-called event took place – sometime in the 1990’s – never filed a police report, didn’t have to produce the ‘dress’ that she threatened me with (it showed negative!), & sung my praises in the first half of her CNN Interview with Alison [sic] Cooper, but changed her tune in the second half – Gee, I wonder why (UNDER APPEAL!)? The Rape charge was dropped by a jury!”
In March, Trump also commented about Carroll during a CNBC interview, calling her “Miss Bergdorf Goodman” and saying she had a “fake story, totally made-up story.”
“91 million based on false accusations made about me by a woman that I knew nothing about,” Trump added.
After the Memorial Day post, Carroll lawyer Robbie Kaplan did not rule out a third lawsuit when Law&Crime asked if the legal team was considering it.
“We have said several times since the last jury verdict in January that all options were on the table. And that remains true today — all options are on the table,” Kaplan said.
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