Donald Trump files for retrial in E Jean Carroll defamation case
Just hours before former US President Donald Trump was informally anointed as the Republican party’s presidential candidate, his legal team has formally requested a new trial in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case.
Columnist E Jean Carroll (L). Ex-US President Donald Trump.(AFP)
The case revolves around compensatory and punitive awards totalling $83 million, awarded to Carroll, who accused Trump of sexually abusing her in a department store dressing room during the mid-1990s.
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Alina Habba, Trump’s legal counsel, contends that the awarded sum is exorbitant and should be significantly reduced. The argument posits that punitive damages could be scaled down to no more than $36.6 million, particularly if the compensatory component, earmarked for restoring Carroll’s reputation, is also diminished. Trump’s lawyers cite pertinent case law to support their stance.
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The defamation trial is “erroneously instructed”
The legal team further contends that a new trial is warranted due to excluded evidence and “erroneously instructed”.
They assert, “This Court’s erroneous decision to dramatically limit the scope of President Trump’s testimony almost certainly influenced the jury’s verdict, and thus a new trial is warranted.”
The 45th US president’s testimony on this matter was stricken from the record by Judge Lewis Kaplan, claims the former president’s legal team.
The counsel’s statement read, “President Trump’s testimony about his own state of mind is the most relevant and probative evidence on the issue of common-law malice, and he was uniquely positioned to address it.”
“By erroneously foreclosing any such testimony – and erroneously striking the one sentence of President Trump’s testimony on this point – the Court all but assured that the jury would make a baseless punitive-damages award.”
While challenging E. Jean Carroll punitive charges, Trump’s legal team argued that Judge Kaplan’s instructions to the jury were flawed. They contended that the instructions were incorrect as they “does not require a showing that intent to injury was the sole … motivation for the challenged statements” according to New York law.
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This legal woe comes amidst Trump’s broader legal challenges, including a recent $454 million judgment for inflating property values to secure favourable bank loans and insurance rates.
Plus, later this month, looming legal action related to a payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election may impact Trump’s presidential campaign.
