Former President of the United States, Donald Trump, has moved to appeal a New York jury’s verdict that held him liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer, E. Jean Carroll.
Last year, Trump was sued by the former Elle magazine columnist for defamation and battery. This was after the New York State Adult Survivors Act, took effect and gave victims of sexual assault a one-year window to sue their alleged abusers decades after attacks may have occurred
Trump had vehemently refuted the allegations, tagging the suit a “scam” and Carroll a “nut job”.
Following the weeks-long trial, A nine-person jury reached a decision on Tuesday finding Trump liable of sexual assault but not rape. He was also found liable for defamation after calling her claims a “hoax”.
In documents filed on Thursday at a Manhattan federal court by Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, it was stated that 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, NBC News reports.
This comes after Trump publicly decried the verdict, tagging it a “disgrace” and “sham” in a video shared via his Truth Social platform on Wednesday. He also attacked the presiding judge, Lewis Kaplan, in the post stating that the latter was a “terrible person” and “completely biased.”
During a CNN town hall meeting, which was also held on Wednesday, Trump doubled down on his claims saying that “She wasn’t raped, OK? And I didn’t do anything else either, OK, because I don’t know who the hell she is.”