“Donald Trump destroyed my reputation”, accused the author during the electric trial in New York
Sexual “attacker”, “liar” and “defamer”: In an electric atmosphere, Donald Trump was beaten by his accuser, author Jean Carroll, at his libel trial in New York on Wednesday, who convicted him in 2023 for compensation. for sexual assault.
The former president of the United States, who dreams of becoming one again, is shuttling between the first Republican primaries this week and his campaign for a Manhattan courthouse with ambitions to transform the court into a political platform.
Returning to his “Trump Tower” in New York on Tuesday evening after a crowded meeting in the small frosty and snowy state of New Hampshire (north-east), where the primaries will be held on January 23, the 77-year-old businessman, former columnist of the American magazine Elle, E. Jean Carroll, 80, spent his arraignment Wednesday in the city’s federal civil court.
“I’m here because Donald Trump attacked me (sexually), lied when I wrote about it and destroyed my reputation,” she shouted in front of the nine judges, according to CNN and NBC television, which has access to the courtroom. .
In a tense atmosphere, Mr. Trump sparred with his lawyers over the prosecutor’s testimony. The judge then ordered him to lower his voice, because if the former president “has the right to be present (…), this right can be taken away.”
“I imagine you want me to do that,” Magistrate Louis Kaplan asked. “I’d love that,” Donald Trump responded with sarcasm.
– “Evil Judge” –
On his way out, on the steps of his Wall Street skyscraper, the tycoon once again lambasted reporters for a “bad judge” who refused to postpone the trial so Mr. Trump could go to his girlfriend’s funeral. -Mother passed away eight days ago.
He was to go to New Hampshire for a new preaching meeting in the evening.
Since Tuesday, Ms. Carroll has been facing the man she accused of raping her nearly 30 years ago.
She was finally found civilly liable during her first trial in May in New York, for “sexual assault” in the fitting room of a city department store in 1996 and for defamation over comments in 2022. Donald Trump was ordered to do so. Pay him five million dollars in compensation.
He appealed and was never prosecuted in the case.
– “Crazy” and “Phony” –
Despite this court decision, he continued to defame and insult his victim, a “crazy” woman with a “false story” whom he had “never seen in (his) life”.
“That’s a lie,” she protested, demanding “a return to (her) reputation” and demanding at least ten million dollars in moral and professional damages.
The tycoon and heavy favorite in the Republican Party primaries, who swept a caucus in the Midwest state of Iowa on Monday, is the target of at least six civil and criminal trials this year.
But he makes his every accusation or appearance an election platform.
He has multiplied invectives against the justice system and President Joe Biden’s Democratic camp, which he accuses of seeking to impeach him to prevent him from winning the presidential election in November.
Donald Trump repeats that his successor in the White House from 2021, and again a possible opponent, is organizing a “witch hunt”.
– Second Trial –
This second defamation trial is expected to last several days but is limited in substance and time because of the first civil judgment last May.
The discussions are based on Ms Carroll’s second defamation complaint for earlier statements made by Donald Trump in June 2019, following the first allegations of rape contained in her book.
Then President of the United States, he said the woman who was “not his type” had invented everything to “sell a new book”. The process was delayed but this second trial was maintained and the comments made by Donald Trump from the spring of 2023 must also be taken into account.
And these new legal hurdles call into question the man’s behavior toward women in general, after numerous allegations of sexual assault, never brought to trial in criminal proceedings.
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