Donald Trump once again accused author E. Jean Carroll of making up sexual abuse allegations.
“I never touched her. I would’ve had no interest in meeting her in any way, shape, or form,” Trump said in a press conference on Friday.
“She made up a story. Fabricated 100 percent, that I attacked her at Bergdorf Goodman,” Trump said. “Her favorite show is Law & Order. And there’s a, almost exact story as her story in Law & Order about being attacked in the dressing room of a department store.”
The tirade came following an appeal hearing on a 2023 verdict that found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation. Similar comments denying the abuse were found to be defamatory by a second Manhattan jury in January, which ordered Trump to pay more than $83 million in damages.
Trump also denied assault allegations from another woman who said that Trump groped her on an airplane. His remarks came hours after his attorneys argued that her testimony was inadmissible in the first Carroll defamation trial.
“I know you’re gonna say it’s a terrible thing to say, but it couldn’t have happened, it didn’t happen, and she would not have been the chosen one,” Trump said. “It’s a total lie.”
In court earlier that day, Trump attorney John Sauer argued that the allegations should be inadmissible since the incident occurred under “territorial or maritime jurisdiction,” according to Business Insider.
As part of the appeal, Trump’s team also contested the admission of the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape, per the Associated Press. That recording finds the former president boasting to television host Billy Bush that he could “grab [women] by the p****y” and get away with it due to his celebrity status.
Trump, who took time off the campaign trail to attend the court proceedings, won a separate legal fight on Friday when New York judge Juan Merchan postponed his sentencing for falsifying business records until after the November election.