WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump held a press convention on Friday that was speculated to be about him interesting a $5 million verdict that discovered him accountable for sexually abusing recommendation columnist E. Jean Carroll within the Nineties.
As a substitute, for almost 45 minutes, Trump stood in entrance of a microphone ranting about Carroll and one other lady who accused him of sexual assault, after which left with out taking any questions.
“I never touched her,” Trump mentioned of Carroll, through the New York Metropolis occasion. “I would have had no interest in meeting her. … She made up a story, fabricated 100%, that I attacked her.”
With none proof, he accused Carroll of stealing her story from an episode of a well-liked authorized drama TV sequence.
“Her favorite show is ‘Law & Order,’” Trump claimed. “There’s an almost exact story as her story in ‘Law & Order’ about being attacked in the dressing room of a department store.”
“That’s her favorite show, ‘Law & Order,’” he repeated. “She said that.”
CHARLY TRIBALLEAU by way of Getty Photos
The Republican presidential nominee had simply been in a federal courtroom along with his attorneys, who argued that Carroll’s civil lawsuit towards him in Could 2023 ought to be overturned as a result of it relied on improper proof. The jury in that case concluded that Trump had attacked Carroll in a luxurious division retailer dressing room in 1996 and awarded her $5 million.
In Jan. 2024, a second jury awarded Carroll one other $83.3 million for defamation, after Trump made derogatory feedback about her when he was president. The decide in that case instructed the jury that it needed to first settle for the earlier jury’s discovering that Trump had sexually assaulted Carroll.
Throughout Friday’s remarks, in his efforts to discredit Carroll, Trump rambled his means into attacking one other lady who had accused him of sexually assaulting her on an airplane many years in the past.
“She said … we became very intimate,” he mentioned, recounting her allegations, because the attorneys standing behind him started wanting uncomfortable. “She said I was making out with her. And then after 15 minutes … that I grabbed her at a certain part, and that was when she had enough.”
Trump scoffed that this might have occurred on a industrial flight.
“I start kissing her and making out with her. What are the chances of that happening?” he mentioned, including, “I know you’re going to say it’s a terrible thing to say, but it couldn’t have happened, and … she would not have been the chosen one.”
Earlier than leaving the occasion and ignoring questions shouted at him by reporters, Trump blamed his authorized group for failing him in his 2023 trial.
“I’m disappointed in my legal talent, to be honest with you,” he mentioned, as a few of his attorneys stood subsequent to him. “I wanted to show up to the first trial. My lawyer, who is not up here, not with us any longer, said, ‘Sir, you should not show up.’”
HuffPost used to maintain a operating tally of all the ladies who’ve publicly accused Trump of sexual assault or rape. We could have misplaced monitor after the numbers surpassed two dozen.
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