Former US President Donald Trump has filed an appeal against a New York jury’s conviction finding him guilty of sexually assaulting and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll.
Trump was sued last year for defamation and violence by a former Elle magazine columnist. This was after the New York State Adult Survivors Act went into effect, giving victims of sexual assault a one-year opportunity to sue their alleged perpetrators decades after the event.
Trump fiercely denied the charges, calling the suit a “scam” and Carroll a “nut job.”
Following the weeks-long testing, a nine-person jury found Trump guilty of sexual assault but not rape on Tuesday. He was also found guilty for defamation after labelling her charges a “hoax.”
According to documents filed by Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, on Thursday in a Manhattan federal court, the ex-president was appealing the $5 million damages awarded against him as well as “all adverse orders, rulings, decrees, decisions, opinions, memoranda, conclusions, or findings” declared by the presiding judge.
This follows Trump’s public condemnation of the ruling, which he called a “disgrace” and a “sham” in a video posted on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday. In the article, he also insulted the presiding judge, Lewis Kaplan, calling him a “terrible person” and “completely biassed.”
Trump reiterated his remarks during a CNN town hall meeting on Wednesday, claiming, “She wasn’t raped, OK?” And I didn’t do anything else, OK, because I have no idea who she is.”
