Former President Donald Trump arrives at Trump Tower, Monday, April 3, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Former President Donald Trump is trying to turn the tables on the advice columnist who won a $5 million jury award against him in a sexual abuse lawsuit, saying in a countersuit that she owes him money and a retraction for continuing to insist she was raped even after a jury declined to agree.
Lawyers for the Republican presidential candidate filed papers late Tuesday saying E. Jean Carroll should pay Trump unspecified compensatory and punitive damages and retract her damaging statements.
The countersuit comes a month after Carroll's lawyers filed a rewritten defamation lawsuit seeking at least $10 million more from Trump over comments he made after the jury verdict in May.
The jury concluded after a two-week trial that Trump sexually abused Carroll in a luxury department store dressing room in spring 1996. It also found that he defamed her in comments he made denying the attack last October.
But the jury rejected Carroll's claim, first made in a 2019 memoir, that Trump raped her in the Bergdorf Goodman dressing room.
At trial, Carroll testified that the rape occurred after a chance encounter with Trump at the midtown store, initially friendly and flirtatious, turned into a violent assault after they teased each other to try on a piece of lingerie.
Trump has consistently denied ever raping Carroll or knowing her. He said the department store encounter never happened.
In his countersuit, Trump's lawyers cited comments Carroll made in a CNN interview after May's verdict, saying that when she was questioned about the jury's finding that she was not raped, Carroll responded: “Oh yes he did, oh yes he did.”
And they said Carroll also revealed that when she spoke to Trump attorney Joe Tacopina immediately after the verdict, she said she told him emphatically: “He did it and you know it.”
The lawyers, Alina Habba and Michael T. Madaio, wrote that Carroll “made these statements knowing each of them were false or with reckless disregard for their truth or falsity.”
“The Interview was on television, social media and multiple internet websites, with the intention of broadcasting and circulating these defamatory statements among a significant portion of the public,” they added.
In a statement in response to Trump's counterclaim, Carroll attorney Robbie Kaplan said that Trump “again argues, contrary to both logic and fact, that he was exonerated by a jury that found that he sexually abused E Jean Carroll by forcibly inserting his fingers into her vagina.”
She said four of five statements cited by the counterclaim were made outside of the one-year statute of limitations when a claim must be made and predicted the other will be dismissed by U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan.
“Trump’s filing is thus nothing more than his latest effort to delay accountability for what a jury has already found to be his defamation of E Jean Carroll. But whether he likes it or not, that accountability is coming very soon,” Kaplan said. Kaplan is not related to the judge.
Trump, who is seeking the Republican nomination to run for president again next year, did not appear at the initial trial. But extensive excerpts of his recorded deposition were played for jurors, along with an infamous video revealed shortly before Trump’s 2016 election in which he bragged that celebrities can grab women sexually without consent.
Prices at the pump have escalated severely during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Paul Christopher, head of global market strategy, Wells Fargo Investment Institute, joined Cheddar News to explain how he sees the gas prices continuing to spiral despite the International Energy Agency announcing the release of 60 million barrels of oil from the strategic reserves of 31 countries. "We think you could see oil and gas prices continue to rise. Oil prices maybe could hit $140 a barrel. That's possible. And that would add another 50-60 cents on top of the gasoline prices you already have," he said.
President Joe Biden is set to give his first State of the Union address amid both international and domestic crises: the Russia-Ukraine conflict and continued rising inflation and economic worries at home. He's expected to focus on a four-point plan to reduce everyday costs, and promote economic competition, among other key tenets. But will it be enough to persuade Americans that his administration will be able to get rising prices and foreign policy moves under control? Eugene Scott, national politics reporter at The Washington Post, joins Closing Bell to discuss Biden's expected focus, how he will aim to ease Americans' concerns, and more.
Dr. Daniel Bober, psychiatrist and certified addiction medicine physician, joins Cheddar News to offer tips on how parents and guardians can talk to their children about what's happening in Ukraine.
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Airbnb.org has announced that it will provide up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees with free housing. Airbnb.org is the philanthropic branch of Airbnb that provides free housing for those affected by disasters. Joe Gebbia, co-founder and chairman of Airbnb.org, joined Cheddar News to talk about how the company has helped thousands find shelter in times of crisis. "A lot of people are saying this conflict is likely to be the largest humanitarian crisis since World War II, and I believe Airbnb believes that companies have a responsibility to step up and to help out in times like these," he said.
The International Energy Agency’s 31 member countries have agreed to release 60 million barrels of oil from their strategic reserves “to send a strong message to oil markets” that supplies won’t fall short after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Every ten years, there’s a census. That decennial count is long and tedious and arduous…and important. Because it confirms who lives where so the Federal Government properly allocates resources, so services go to the places that need them most and - yes - so states gain or lose seats in congress and have the opportunity to redraw all their state and Congressional lines.
That means, every 10 years, states start what has famously been one of the most partisan and divisive processes in politics. Because one strategic line can mean the difference in party control in not just the state legislatures but also in congress.
Cheddar explains how gerrymandering works and why it exists.
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted blood donations leading to severe shortages throughout the country. Chloe Aiello reports on the desperate need for new donors.
Russian forces escalated their attacks on populated urban areas Tuesday, bombarding the central square in Ukraine’s second-largest city and Kyiv’s main TV tower.
