“He’s ready to move on”
Trump appeals allegations of abuse
05/12/2023 01:19 am
After his conviction for sexual abuse and defamation, the former US President announced that he would not accept the verdict. Trump will fight against it, says his lawyer. A corresponding document is now being submitted to the court.
Former US President Donald Trump, sentenced to millions in compensation for sexual abuse and defamation, has appealed the verdict. A New York grand jury on Tuesday found it proven that Trump assaulted and sexually assaulted author E. Jean Carroll in a New York upscale department store in 1996. The jury also ordered Trump to pay the 79-year-old a total of five million dollars – around 4.56 million euros – for defamation.
Trump had already announced after the decision that he wanted to appeal. Now his lawyers submitted a corresponding document to the court. “He’s ready to move on. He’ll fight it with an appeal,” Trump’s attorney Joseph Tacopina said after the verdict.
Writer Carroll accused Trump of raping her in a New York department store in the mid-1990s. The jury rejected the allegation of rape. The real estate entrepreneur, who was not yet active as a politician at the time, had always rejected all accusations. The criminal allegations are statute-barred, but under civil law the 79-year-old Carroll was free to take legal action.
Carroll had spoken of a victory “for all women who have suffered because they were not believed”. Trump has been accused of sexual misconduct up to and including rape by around 20 women over the decades. He always rejected such allegations.
Carroll, a longtime columnist for Elle magazine, only made her allegation public in 2019, when Trump was president. She had been silent for so long because she was afraid that Trump could destroy her career, she explained. At the trial, two witnesses confirmed that Carroll told them about the crime shortly after the incident.