Trump lawyers want him back on witness stand in E. Jean Carroll case

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s lawyers said Tuesday that the ex-president deserves a new trial and a fresh chance to tell a jury why he berated writer E. Jean Carroll for her sex abuse claims against him after she revealed them five years ago.

The lawyers made the assertion as they renewed challenges to the $83.3 million awarded to Carroll in January by a Manhattan jury.

The award raised to $88.3 million what Trump owes Carroll after another jury last May awarded $5 million to the longtime advice columnist after concluding that Trump sexually abused her in spring 1996 in the dressing room of a luxury department store in midtown Manhattan and then defamed her with comments in October 2022.

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan had ordered the January jury to accept the findings of the earlier jury and only decide how much Trump owed Carroll for two statements he issued in 2019 after excerpts from Carroll’s memoir were published by a magazine. Carroll testified that the comments ruined her career and left her fearing for her life after she received threats from strangers online.

Trump did not attend the May trial but was a regular fixture at this year’s trial, shaking his head repeatedly and grumbling loudly enough from his seat at the defense table that a prosecutor complained that jurors could hear him.

<bsp-list-loadmore data-module="" class=«PageListStandardB» data-gtm-region=«READ MORE» data-gtm-topic=«No Value» data-show-loadmore=«true» data-gtm-modulestyle=«List B»> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> READ MORE </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> Writer E. Jean Carroll’s lawyers urge judge to reject Trump’s request to postpone $83.3M jury award </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline