Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump gestures to supporters during a campaign rally at the Forum River Center in Rome, Georgia, U.S. March 9, 2024.
Alyssa Pointer | Reuters
Donald Trump on Monday once again denied writer E. Jean Carroll’s rape and defamation claims against him, despite facing nearly $90 million in civil penalties over similar denials.
Speaking on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” the presumptive Republican presidential nominee claimed that the numerous judgments against him in New York will prompt companies to leave the state.
They’re “the most ridiculous decisions,” Trump said, “including the Ms. Bergdorf Goodman, a person I’d never met.”
“I have no idea who she is, except one thing, I got sued,” he said. “From that point on I said, ‘Wow, that’s crazy, what this is.'”
“I got charged, I was given a false accusation and had to post a $91 million bond on a false accusation,” Trump added.
He was referring to Carroll, who in 2019 first publicly accused the then-president of raping her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman, the Manhattan department store, in the mid-1990s. Carroll sued Trump in New York federal court for defaming her, after he denied the rape claim and accused her of trying to sell books.
In 2022, Carroll sued Trump a second time for battery and defamation relating to the alleged rape and a subsequent denial after he left the White House.
Trump in that Oct. 12, 2022, statement also referred to Carroll as “Ms. Bergdorf Goodman.”
A federal civil jury last May awarded Carroll $5 million in damages in that case after finding Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation.
In January, another federal civil jury in Manhattan ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million for defaming Carroll through the statements he made as president.
Trump is appealing both verdicts. On Friday, he posted a $91.6 million bond to secure the most recent judgment while he appeals the jury decision.
In Carroll’s other case, Trump has already put up $5.6 million in security pending his appeal.
In Monday’s interview with CNBC, Trump claimed that his legal battles in New York, including a civil business fraud case resulting in $464 million in total fines and interest, will result in companies leaving New York.
“People aren’t moving into New York, because of the kind of crap they’re pulling on me,” he said.
An attorney for Carroll and a spokesman for Trump did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the former president’s latest remarks about the writer.
Trump at a Saturday rally had also accused Carroll of making a “false accusations.”