A federal judge has ruled Donald Trump is liable for defamatory comments he made in 2019 about writer E Jean Carroll.
Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled on Wednesday that Ms Carroll’s second civil defamation trial against Mr Trump will be limited to determining damages.
Ms Carroll accused Mr Trump of raping her at a department store in the 1990s.The former president goes to trial in January against Ms Carroll over comments he made about her allegations.
In a statement on Wednesday, lawyers for Mr Trump said they “remain very confident that the Carroll II verdict will be overturned on appeal, which will render this decision moot”.
Ms Carroll first came forward with the sexual assault claims in a New York Magazine article in 2019.
Mr Trump then denied the allegations, and Ms Carroll filed her first defamation suit against him that November, claiming he damaged her reputation and caused her emotional harm.
This case is separate from a civil trial in May, where a New York jury found the former president sexually abused Ms Carroll, though he was found not liable for raping her in the dressing room of Bergdorf Goodman.
That jury also found Mr Trump liable for defamation for calling the magazine writer’s accusations “a hoax and a lie”.
Mr Trump was ordered to pay Ms Carroll $5m (£4m) as a part of that New York civil lawsuit
CAN news | Trump suffers loss in second E Jean Carroll defamation case
