E. Jean Carroll is still no closer to pocketing Trump's $5 million from defamation verdict
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- On Monday, the federal judge in Trump's NY rape-defamation case ruled again in E. Jean Carroll's favor.
- Rape using fingers is still rape, the judge again ruled in dismissing Trump's counter-claim.
- The writer is no closer to pocketing the $5 million verdict she won from Trump in May.
Magazine writer E. Jean Carroll won her latest legal victory against Donald Trump on Monday, but is still no closer to pocketing the $5 million defamation-sex assault verdict she won from him in May.
In a decision Monday, a federal judge in Manhattan tossed out Trump's attempt to counter-sue Carroll for defamation.
The former president had claimed Carroll defamed him when she appeared on CNN on the morning after the verdict, which held Trump civilly liable for sexual battery, but not for rape as defined in New York's penal code.
"Oh, yes, he did," Carroll had said on CNN This Morning, when asked what had gone through her mind on hearing that the jury found Carroll had not proven that Trump had penetrated her with his penis.
"Oh, yes, he did," she repeated.
Saying "yes, he did" despite the verdict was defamatory, Trump had said in a counterclaim that argued those three words showed "actual malice and ill will with an intent to significantly and spitefully harm and attack" Trump's reputation.
US District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan disagreed in Monday's opinion, which countered that penetration by either fingers or a penis can constitute rape in "common modern parlance."
"It accordingly is the 'truth,' as relevant here, that Mr. Trump digitally raped Ms. Carroll," the judge wrote, citing her compelling testimony. Carroll "squirming in response to an intrusive memory of Mr. Trump's fingers" also proved she had been so raped, he said, as did the size of the verdict — a full $2 million of which is compensation for sexual battery.
Kaplan used the same logic — that digital penetration is commonly understood to be rape — last month, in striking down Trump's attempt to reduce that $2 million portion of the damages.
Kaplan will preside in January over a trial for Carroll's remaining defamation lawsuit, which centers on remarks Trump made while still president.
In those statements, Trump called Carroll a liar, including on June 24, 2019, when he told reporters, "I'll say it with great respect: Number one, she's not my type. Number two, it never happened. It never happened, OK?"
Trump has already parted company with the $5 million he owes Carroll. The money remains in an escrow account controlled by the federal court system, where it is accruing interest while Trump continues to appeal the May verdict.
"We are pleased that the Court dismissed Donald Trump's counterclaim," Carroll's attorney Roberta Kaplan said in a press statement responding to Monday's opinion.
"That means that the January 15th jury trial will be limited to a narrow set of issues and shouldn't take very long to complete," she wrote.
"E. Jean Carroll looks forward to obtaining additional compensatory and punitive damages based on the original defamatory statements Donald Trump made in 2019."
Trump attorney Joe Tacopina declined to comment on the opinion, which contained a small victory for his client.
The victory concerns Trump's "She's not my type" and "It never happened" statements from June, 2019.
The judge will allow Trump to use a defense during the January trial that those statements were matters of opinion, and, as Trump has argued, "are not capable of being proven true or false."