Trump lawyers request new trial in E Jean Carroll case that saw ex-president fined $83.3m

The New York judge previously denied his motion for a mistrial, calling it ‘entirely pointless’

Attorneys for former president Donald Trump are arguing that he should be granted a new trial in the case brought against him by E Jean Carroll.

Ms Carroll won her case against Mr Trump in January, with a jury ruling he had defamed her after she came forward in 2019 with allegations that he had raped her in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s.

Mr Trump denied the accusations, and claimed he had "never met that person in my life.” In an interview with The Hill, he said “She’s not my type,” suggesting he didn’t find her attractive enough for the assault to have taken place.

After a two-week civil trial in January, the nine-person jury ruled in Ms Carroll’s favour and ordered Mr Trump to pay her $83.3m in damages.

In a new court filing on Tuesday, attorneys for Mr Trump pushed for a new trial, arguing that the trial’s verdict had been “infected” by errors.

According to the filing, Judge Lewis Kaplan did not allow the jury to consider comments from Mr Trump on his “state of mind” when he defamed Ms Carroll, which “restrict[ed] the scope” of his testimony. In the stricken testimony cited by his attorneys, Mr Trump had said he “just wanted to defend myself, my family, and frankly, the presidency.”

“This Court’s erroneous decision to dramatically limit the scope of President Trump’s testimony almost certainly influenced the jury’s verdict, and thus a new trial is warranted,” the defence attorneys wrote.

The attorneys also argued the federal judge gave “erroneous jury instruction on the definition of common-law malice.”

This wasn’t Mr Trump’s first time calling for a redo. In February, Judge Kaplan denied his motion for a mistrial, saying the trial had been fair and retrying it would be “entirely pointless.”

"The Court gave an appropriate instruction on the subject. And the jury rendered its verdict," he wrote. "A mistrial at this point would be a bootless exercise."

More than a month after the verdict, Mr Trump has yet to pay Ms Carroll the $83.3m and recently filed a motion calling for the judge to delay enforcement of the payment.

In a scathing 36-page court filing last week, Ms Carroll’s legal team fought back, arguing Mr Trump had no grounds for the delay.

“The reasoning Trump offers in seeking this extraordinary relief boils down to nothing more than ‘trust me,’” the filing states. “He doesn’t offer any information about his finances or the nature and location of his assets. He doesn’t specify what percentage of his assets are liquid or explain how Carroll might go about collecting.”

Ms Carroll’s attorneys expressed their concern that Mr Trump, who remains embroiled in a sweeping array of legal disputes, might not have enough money to make the hefty payment.

“He doesn’t even acknowledge the risks that now accompany his financial situation, from a half billion-dollar judgment obtained by the New York Attorney General to the 91 felony charges that might end his career as a businessman permanently,” the filing states.

“He simply asks the Court to ‘trust me’ and offers, in a case with an $83.3 million judgment against him, the court filing equivalent of a paper napkin; signed by the least trustworthy of borrowers,” it states.

In an interview after the verdict on Good Morning America, Ms Carroll vowed she would spend the $83.3m on “something Donald Trump hates.”

“If it’ll cause him pain for me to give money to certain things, that’s my intent,” she said.