Trump CNN Town Hall highlights include comments on E. Jean Carroll verdict, Jan. 6 and more
CBSN
Former President Donald Trump disparaged writer E. Jean Carroll in a CNN town hall Wednesday night, one day after a federal jury in New York found him liable for battery and defamation in a civil trial stemming from allegations he raped Carroll in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.
The jury did not find Trump liable for rape but did find that he sexually abused Carroll and then defamed her when she came forward several years ago. Carroll was awarded $5 million total in damages. After the verdict, Trump claimed that he didn't know Carroll and that he was "silenced" from speaking publicly about the case, despite the fact that the court gave him multiple opportunities to speak at the trial and he declined to do so.
On Wednesday night in Manchester, New Hampshire, Trump decried the jury's verdict in the civil case and called Carroll a "whack job," using language similar to that which led to his defamation verdict in the first place. Trump called Carroll's story "fake" and "made up," even though a jury unanimously and swiftly agreed on the verdict. Trump was asked what he tells voters who say the verdict disqualifies him from being president.
