Former President Donald Trump on Saturday stood by his 2019 statement that writer E. Jean Carroll made a “totally false accusation” against him, despite similar claims resulting in him losing a defamation case in January.

Campaigning at a rally in Rome, Georgia, Trump referenced the $91.6 million bond he posted on March 8, three days before his deadline to pay $83.3 million in damages to Carroll for defaming her in statements he made as president after denying her accusation that he’d raped her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s.

Carroll first came forward in 2019 with sexual assault claims against Trump before another civil trial in May 2023, where a New York jury found that the former president sexually abused Carroll but didn’t rape her.

  • Randomgal@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    8 months ago

    Nope. It doesn’t work like that. You can’t just lie so much that you can say whatever you want because no one will believe you. Wtf lol

    • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      8 months ago

      It does, actually.

      For example, if I were to tell everyone in this community that Randomgal is a pedophile, that would constitute defamation. It is a false assertion presented as fact, and a reasonable person could believe it to be true. Randomgal’s reputation would be damaged by such a statement.

      If I tell everyone that Randomgal fucks three headed aliens from the planet Morgonne XII, that does not constitute defamation, because no reasonable person would consider that to be a true statement. Randomgal’s reputation is not damaged by such a statement.

      Some “reasonable person” has to believe Trump’s claims for those claims to constitute defamation.