As of: March 10, 2024, 2:25 p.m
By: Fabian Hartmann
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After failing with his delaying tactics, Donald Trump continues to deny allegations of abuse.
Rome, Georgia - Donald Trump has claimed that sexual assault allegations made against him by American journalist and author Elizabeth Jean Carroll are a "fictional story".
At a rally in Rome, Georgia, Trump complained about having to post more than $91 million in bail in the case.
"She wrote a book, she said things, and when I disputed it, I said, 'That's so crazy, that's wrong,' and I got sued for libel.
That's how it begins," Trump is quoted as saying by US news service
Newsweek
.
“Sometimes it’s not good to be rich,” Trump told the audience.
“I could say what it would normally cost.
Ninety-one million based on false accusations made against me by a woman I knew nothing about, I didn't know, I had never heard of, I knew nothing about her.”
Trump is said to have raped Carroll in a locker room in the mid-1990s
In 2019, Carroll filed a lawsuit against Trump: the former US president accused her of lying when she reported him for sexual assault.
The same year, the journalist claimed that Trump raped her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in the mid-1990s.
Former US President Donald Trump © IMAGO/Sam Navarro
The rejections by the former US president and current Republican presidential candidate have led legal experts to suspect that Trump could face another defamation lawsuit.
The court found Trump guilty in May 2023 - his lawyers appealed
In a civil trial in May 2023, jurors found Trump guilty of sexual abuse and defamation in a separate defamation lawsuit filed by Carroll in 2022.
They also awarded the journalist around $5 million in damages.
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Trump has denied any wrongdoing in both trials.
He also claimed that they were politically motivated to damage his reputation in the presidential election campaign.
During a trial in January over how much damages Trump would have to pay for the 2019 lawsuit, he denied ever knowing the journalist and author Carroll personally.
The jury in the trial sentenced Trump to pay Carroll a total of $83.3 million.
Judge Kaplan made the ruling official on February 8, giving Trump 30 days to post $24.5 million bail or raise cash while he appeals.
Trump also hasn't shown that posting bail of that amount could cause him "irreparable harm."
Trump tried until the very end to delay the execution of the sentence
Until recently, Trump had tried to drag out the execution of the verdict.
To that end, the Republican presidential candidate only filed his motions to dismiss the ruling on Tuesday.
“Mr. Trump's current situation is the result of his own delaying tactics,” said US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan, who was responsible for the verdict, explaining his decision.
According to Kaplan, Trump should not have waited until 25 days after the verdict before requesting a stay of execution.
The court's decision now increases the pressure on the former US president to pay the bail expected from him to the plaintiff Carroll.
(fh)