Trump: I’ll appeal Carroll case guilty verdict as “election interference”
New York, May 10 (EFE).- Former President Donald Trump confirmed Wednesday on his Truth Social social network that he is intending to appeal the verdict handed down by a New York jury earlier this week finding him liable for sexual abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll.
According to the verdict delivered on Tuesday afternoon by the nine-person jury after deliberating for just a couple of hours, Trump must pay $5 million in damages to Carroll, who said that she had filed the case against him to “clear” her name and “get her (good) name back” before dedicating the verdict to “all women” who has suffered because they were not believed when they reported sexual abuse or rape.
“There’s a sort of a feeling of victory that, at last, somebody has held him accountable in a courtroom,” Carroll told CNN on Wednesday morning.
Meanwhile, Trump lashed out on his Truth Social social network, writing: “THIS WITCH HUNT IS ALL ABOUT ELECTION INTERFERENCE, BUT SO FAR IT SEEMS TO BE BACKFIRING ON THE RADICAL LEFT MISFITS WHO CAN’T WIN AN ELECTION WITHOUT CHEATING!”
He also claimed yet again that he did not know Carroll and denied having any contact with her.
Shortly before making those remarks, Trump had claimed that the jury’s true motives were completely political and that the nine members wanted to derail his presidential candidacy.
After the jury’s verdict was announced on Tuesday, Trump immediately posted a vitriolic statement on his social media site, claiming that he did not know Carroll and calling the jury’s decision “a disgrace” and “a continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time.”
He declared that he would certainly appeal.
Trump’s campaign team on Tuesday had alluded to what it claimed was the political stance of the jury, implicitly acknowledging that the verdict could affect the presidential campaign of the ex-president, who so far is the front-runner among confirmed Republican candidates for the GOP presidential nomination.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has not yet declared his candidacy for the GOP nomination, but Trump is running far ahead of him in the voter surveys, which also put him ahead of Democratic President Joe Biden, who recently officially announced that he is running for reelection.
EFE –/bp
