Former President Donald Trump criticized his attorneys Friday, hours after he appeared in court for the appeal of writer E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case against him, railing against Carroll and the litigation as Trump continues to face mounting legal issues in both criminal and civil cases.
Former President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at Trump Tower in New York City on ... [+]
“I’m disappointed in my legal team, I’ll be honest with you,” Trump told reporters at the Trump Tower press briefing, though he added, “they’re good people, talented people.”
Trump made the remarks after a federal appeals court heard arguments in his appeal of a $5 million verdict against him, which found him liable for sexually abusing Carroll in the 1990s and then defaming her after she publicly made the allegations in 2019.
While decrying the case against him, Trump said he “feel[s] sad” that he has to defend himself from the allegations, going on to say, “I have all this legal talent, but legal talent can’t overcome rigged judges” or New York City’s heavily Democratic population.
Trump criticized his attorney D. John Sauer, who argued Trump’s case Friday, for not bringing up a dress that Carroll claimed had Trump’s DNA on it from the alleged assault, which became a point of contention ahead of the initial trial—as Carroll unsuccessfully tried to get Trump to provide his DNA for years, and Trump then finally offered it in exchange for a full DNA report on the dress, but the judge ruled he made that request too late, so no DNA evidence was ultimately used at trial.
Trump also criticized an unnamed attorney on his first Carroll trial who is “not with us any longer”—likely referencing Joe Tacopina, who argued that case and later left Trump’s legal team—for convincing Trump not to attend his the trial which he then went on to lose.
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Trump primarily used his remarks to rail against Carroll and the accusations against him, accusing her of making up her allegations based on an episode of “Law & Order: SVU” and telling reporters her accusations weren’t true because “I would not want to be involved with her.” The ex-president also criticized Jessica Leeds, who accused Trump of assaulting her on a plane. Leeds’ testimony at the Carroll trial is part of Trump’s appeal, as the ex-president’s lawyers claim it should not have been allowed. “She would not have been the chosen one,” Trump said as he denied Leeds’ allegations.
It’s unclear when the appeals court could rule on Trump’s appeal, though attorney Mitchell Epner predicted to Forbes it’s likely to be in at least a few months, either at the end of this year or beginning of 2025. Trump is also separately appealing a second defamation verdict against him in a case involving Carroll, in which a jury ordered him to pay $83.3 million based on the defamation and sexual assault verdict in the first trial. As Trump has continued to attack Carroll publicly despite the millions of dollars he’s been ordered to pay for doing so, Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan has also suggested Carroll could bring additional legal claims. “I’ve said before and I’ll say it again: all options are on the table,” Kaplan told The New York Times on Friday.
$67.9 million. That’s how much Trump has paid his lawyers through his Save America PAC between Jan. 1, 2023, and the end of July, the most recent date for which filings are available. Trump has used his political action committee as the primary way to pay his legal fees as the litigation against him has piled up, though it’s unclear if he could have any separate legal funds that aren’t subject to public disclosures or be paying any money out of his own pocket.
While Trump railed against his attorneys, his comments came shortly before he got a win in court in a different case. New York Judge Juan Merchan ruled Friday to postpone Trump’s sentencing in his criminal case over hush money payments made before the 2016 election, pushing the date back until Nov. 26—after the election, as Trump had asked. The judge noted he made his decision in order to avoid any perception that the sentence he sets is based on political bias, also writing, “The members of this jury served diligently on this case, and their verdict must be respected and addressed in a manner that is not diluted by the enormity of the upcoming presidential election.”
Carroll accused Trump in 2019 of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room decades earlier in the 1990s, prompting Trump to deny the accusations—claiming Carroll wasn’t “my type”—and Carroll to sue Trump for defamation in response. The case that was heard on appeal is one of two cases Carroll brought against Trump, which was brought second but went to trial first. The case was brought under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which allowed adult victims a one-year period to bring claims in which the statute of limitations had expired. The jury at the trial ruled in May 2023 that Trump was liable for defamation and sexual assault, but did not find him liable for rape. The case is one of many that Trump has faced in the past few years after leaving office, including four criminal cases and a civil fraud case against him and his company that resulted in Trump being ordered to pay more than $450 million. Only one criminal case has gone to trial and the others remain pending, though Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in July dismissed criminal charges against Trump for allegedly withholding White House documents. Prosecutors have appealed her decision, and Trump praised the judge Friday, calling her “a brilliant woman.”