Former President Donald Trump on Saturday stood by his 2019 statement that writer E. Jean Carroll made a “totally false accusation” against him, despite similar claims resulting in him losing a defamation case in January.

Campaigning at a rally in Rome, Georgia, Trump referenced the $91.6 million bond he posted on March 8, three days before his deadline to pay $83.3 million in damages to Carroll for defaming her in statements he made as president after denying her accusation that he’d raped her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s.

Carroll first came forward in 2019 with sexual assault claims against Trump before another civil trial in May 2023, where a New York jury found that the former president sexually abused Carroll but didn’t rape her.

  • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today
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    8 months ago

    From what I can tell from the article, he just said that the accusation was false. He says a lot of stupid shit, but this seems like manufactured clickbait drama if that’s the case.

    • zerog_bandit@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      That’s not clickbait drama. That’s the heart and soul of this case.

      The court has ruled TWICE now that Trump defamed Carroll. To claim in public the knowingly false statement that he did not defame her, is the very literally definition of defamation.

    • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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      8 months ago

      It’s defamation to publicly accuse someone of dishonesty, which accusing them of fabricating a sexual assault charge is.

      The first case was her alleging that he assaulted her. The second case was when he called her a liar for falsely accusing him.

      We’re literally at the tail end of him paying damages for doing what he just did again.

    • Kage520@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Trump has a very big microphone and a very loyal fan base. If he complains enough like this, it’s possible someone will do him a “favor” and get rid of the annoyance of the “liar” they feel is defaming their favorite person.