Former President Donald Trump paused his campaign on Friday to defend himself against what he described as “trumped-up” sexual assault allegations and flirted with new lawsuits by accusing author E. Jean Carroll of making up her claims against him.
It’s a very risky strategy that risks keeping the story in the headlines and reminding voters of his legal troubles while he’s locked in a fierce battle with Kamala Harris.
But he was optimistic as he left the Trump Tower event, speaking to DailyMail.com about whether this was the right way to win over female voters.
“We’re doing great with women,” he said.
His appearance was billed as a press conference. But in the end, he only answered that one question.
Former President Donald Trump spoke to DailyMail.com as he left his Trump Tower event
The former president spent the morning in court, where his lawyers argued that the $5 million judgment finding him liable for sexually assaulting Carroll in 1996 should be overturned.
They said key evidence should have been excluded and that other pieces of evidence were wrongly excluded.
Trump blamed his own lawyers for his plight, saying, “I am disappointed in my legal talent,” as he was assisted by seven of his attorneys in the lobby of Trump Tower.
He continued to maintain that the accusation that he had attacked Carroll in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store across the street was a “fabricated” story.
“That never happened,” he said, standing a stone’s throw from a store selling his books and a Trump football.
‘A completely fake story. I think it’s a shame that I have to come here and explain that I do have a lot of legal talent, but that legal talent does not stand up to dishonest judges.’
He further claimed that “Law and Order” was one of Carroll’s favorite TV shows.
“And there’s almost an exact same story as her story on ‘Law & Order’ about the attack in a department store dressing room,” he said, urging reporters in attendance to find the episode.
Trump’s denials raise further legal questions. Judges have twice awarded him millions of dollars in damages because he claimed Carroll’s story was untrue.
Trump stood with his legal team in the lobby of Trump Tower on Friday before heading to North Carolina for a campaign event
He spoke at length and used postcards, but took no questions from the journalists present, except from DailyMail.com.
Trump sat just feet away from E. Jean Carroll in New York City court Friday morning
And while he tries to defend his innocence, Democratic operatives will pore over the footage to turn it into attack ads.
In the latest ABC/Ipsos poll, Trump trails Harris by 54 percent, compared to 41 percent, among women.
And Trump made sure news bulletins featured clips of him talking about two other women who came forward with their own stories in support of Carroll.
He said he couldn’t have abused a woman on a plane in the late 1970s because the armrests were no longer secured.
Last year, Jessica Leeds testified that he reached up her skirt and grabbed her breast while they sat next to each other in first class.
“Think about the impracticality of this. I’m famous, I’m on a plane. People come on the plane, and I look at a woman, and I grab her and start kissing her and making out with her,” he said.
“What are the chances of that happening?”
“And honestly, I know you’re going to say it’s a horrible thing to say, but it couldn’t have happened. It didn’t happen. And she wouldn’t have been the chosen one.”
Trump took time out of his campaign platform on Friday to address the media
Trump’s lawyers argued that a $5 million judgment finding him liable for sexually abusing Carroll (pictured outside court on Friday) in 1996 should be overturned.
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He also pointed out that there was no police report, witnesses or other corroboration.
Trump left it to his attorney Alina Habba to dot the i’s and cross the t’s and call on female voters to stand up for justice.
“As a woman who has stood by President Trump, who has spent a great deal of time with him and his beautiful family, I can tell you this is not President Trump. I am utterly disgusted by what I have seen happen to this individual, his family, and the Trump Organization that we are now a part of,” she said.
“You have to vote for Donald Trump again, because as a lawyer, as a woman, as a mother, the future of this country depends on it.”
Will Scharf, a member of the legal team, outlined the grounds for the appeal, saying the attorneys failed to properly question Carroll and explain the political forces behind the case.
“This lawsuit was brought in large part by George Conway, a longtime political enemy and opponent of President Trump,” he said.
“This is a lawsuit that was funded by Reid Hoffman, a key political ally of the Biden Harris administration and a major donor to the Democratic Party.
“We were only allowed to present limited evidence at trial regarding these crucial facts.”