A federal judge Monday dismissed former President Trump’s claim that E. Jean Carroll defamed him in May after a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing the writer.
The day after the verdict, Carroll appeared on CNN and indicated Trump had raped her. The jury had not found Trump liable for rape under New York’s definition, but instead found him liable for sexual abuse.
Trump then claimed Carroll’s insistence on CNN amounted to defamation, filing a counterclaim in Carroll’s other lawsuit that has not yet gone to trial.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan on Monday dismissed Trump’s argument, ruling Carroll’s statement on the cable network was substantially true and that “[t]here would have been no different effect on the mind of an average listener.”
“The difference between Ms. Carroll’s allegedly defamatory statements — that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as defined in the New York Penal Law — and the ‘truth’ — that Mr. Trump forcibly digitally penetrated Ms. Carroll — is minimal. Both are felonious sex crimes,” Kaplan ruled.
Kaplan, a Clinton appointee, separately rejected Trump’s defense that he has “absolute presidential immunity” in the case.
NY defines rape as penetration with a penis. Since he penetrated her with his fingers, it could only be considered sexual assault by NY’s definition. Worth noting that she claimed he penetrated her with both, but could only prove in court that he penetrated her with his fingers.
This judge basically ruled that while he wasn’t found guilty of raping her based on NY’s narrow definition, the colloquial use of the word rape is functionally what he did to her.
Wait. Really? Still? What backwards planet are we still living that one of the largest states has deemed that men can’t be raped by women?