A federal judge dismissed former President Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll in a Monday ruling.
Trump countersued Carroll in late June after a grand jury found him liable of defamation and sexual assault against the writer in a separate civil case in May. Carroll publicly claimed Trump raped her in a dressing room at Manhattan’s Bergdorf Goodman department store in the mid-1990’s.
Trump alleged Carroll defamed him by telling CNN she thought in her head, “Oh, yes, he did — oh, yes, he did,” after the jury found Trump not liable of her rape allegation. The judge ruled her remarks were “substantially true” since the jury decided Trump “digitally” penetrated her and didn’t use his genitalia, which New York law requires to prosecute with a rape charge, according to CNBC.
