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.
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.
Bro, who hurt you?
A three-headed alien from Morgonne XII.
Exactly my point.