Former President Donald Trump said he does not think a recent verdict in which a Manhattan federal jury found that he was liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll in a luxury department store dressing room disqualifies him from being president or will have an impact on women voters.
He denied knowing the columnist and denied the accusations. Trump ridiculed Carroll while discussing the trial, only a day after the verdict was handed down.
"A Manhattan jury found you sexually abused writer E. Jean You've denied this. But what do you say to voters who say it disqualifies you from being president?" CNN's Kaitlan Collins asked.
Trump answered that he didn't think there were many voters who would think that. He claimed that the case was made up and that it was all politically motivated. He repeated that he did not know Carroll, but said that he took a photo "years ago" with her and her husband.
"This woman, I don't know her. I never met her. I have no idea who she is," Trump said.
When asked if the jury's decision would deter women from voting for him, the former president said, "No, I don't think so."
Some context: A Manhattan federal jury found Tuesday that Trump sexually abused Carroll in the spring of 1996 and awarded her $5 million for battery and defamation.
Carroll alleged Trump raped her in the Bergdorf Goodman department store and then defamed her when he denied her claim, said she wasn’t his type and suggested she made up the story to boost sales of her book. Trump denied all wrongdoing. He does not face any jail time as a result of the civil verdict.
While the jury found that Trump sexually abused her, sufficient to hold him liable for battery, the jury did not find that Carroll proved he raped her.
Carroll filed the lawsuit last November under the “New York State Adult Survivors Act,” a state bill that opened a look-back window for sexual assault allegations like Carroll’s with long-expired statutes of limitation.