Judge Lewis Kaplan has blocked Donald Trump from showing video of E. Jean Carroll’s 2019 interview with Anderson Cooper during his second defamation trial involving the writer.
Last May a New York City jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation against Carroll, a former Elle magazine columnist who has accused him of assaulting her in a Manhattan department store changing room in the mid-1990s. The jury awarded Carroll awarded $5 million in damages.
Carroll’s attorneys are now seeking more than $10 million in damages after the former president said she was lying about her accusations, that he has no idea who Carroll is and that she was not his “type.” Trump has maintained his innocence in the case, which is civil, not criminal.
In the current trial, Trump has sought to introduce Carroll’s 2019 CNN interview as evidence. During that interview, Carroll discussed how she believed other people viewed rape.
Trump and some of his supporters have tried to use these comments to suggest that Carroll enjoyed being sexually assaulted or thinks rape is “sexy,” rather than discussing her perception of views potentially held by others.
Shannon Stapleton-Pool/Getty Images
On Thursday morning, Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to again argue that the tape should be shown to the jury.
“Are we going to be able to show the CNN Anderson Cooper tape today which, among other things, totally exonerates me from a decades old False Accusation? THIS IS A WITCH HUNT CONCEIVED AND FUNDED BY POLITICAL OPERATIVES FOR PURPOSES OF ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!!”
Newsweek reached out to Trump’s campaign and Carroll’s attorney for comment via email.
What Carroll Said in the Cooper Interview
In the Cooper interview, Trump has called specific attention to Carroll discussing how some people may view rape.
“The word rape carries so many sexual connotations. This was not sexual. It hurt,” Carroll said. Cooper then interjected that “most people view rape as a violent assault.”
“I think most people think of rape as being sexy,” Carroll responded. “They think of the fantasies.”
Cooper then cut away to a commercial, ending that segment of the interview.
Why Judge Blocked Trump From Showing Interview to Jury
Earlier this month, Kaplan ruled that Trump’s legal team is not allowed to present the interview to the jury. He also said ahead of the trial that Trump’s attorneys are not permitted to argue to the jury that he did not rape or sexually assault Carroll, as this was not relevant to her current defamation case.
“This trial is limited to the issue of damages sustained as a result of the defendant’s June 21 and 22, 2019 statements. Those statements already have been determined to have been false, defamatory, and made with constitutional actual malice,” Kaplan wrote.
He continued: “The introduction of the Anderson Cooper 360 video needlessly and confusingly would invite the jury to decide this case on the basis of defendant’s view that those issues are open to discussion or reconsideration. They are not.”
Uncommon Knowledge
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