A federal judge has ruled that Donald Trump made libelous statements against E. Jean Carroll in 2019.
Four months after a jury found that Donald Trump sexually abused and defamed advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, a federal judge ruled Wednesday that still more of the ex-president’s comments about her were libelous. The decision means that an upcoming second civil trial will concern only how much more he has to pay her.
The ruling stands to streamline significantly the second trial, set for January. It concerns remarks that Trump made in 2019, after Carroll first publicly claimed that Trump sexually attacked her in a luxury department store dressing room in the 1990s, which he denies.
The second trial, which will be featured in Trump’s busy court tour 2024, will determine how many additional millions of dollars Donald Trump owes E. Jean Carroll.
Trump has refused to stop defaming Carroll, and he is now facing potential damages totaling tens of millions of dollars. Given that the former president could also be staring down the prospect of criminal felony convictions at the federal and state level, it would not be surprising if the Carroll case was not at the front of his mind.
E. Jean Carroll has shattered the myth of Trump being a Teflon Don, and even more importantly she has shown Trump that there are consequences for his words and actions.