Donald Trump Goes on E. Jean Carroll Posting Binge

Donald Trump made 30 posts about writer E. Jean Carroll, or her legal action against him, on his Truth Social website on Thursday.

Carroll is seeking $10 million in damages from Trump in an ongoing civil defamation trial, in response to comments the former president and 2024 Republican presidential frontrunner made around the time of her first lawsuit against him. This concluded in May 2023 with a jury ruling Trump had sexually abused and defamed Carroll and ordered him to pay $5 million in compensation.

During the initial trial, Carroll claimed Trump forcibly groped and then raped her at a New York department store during the 1990s. This accusation was strongly denied by Trump who after the verdict claimed: "I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS," and described the case as: "A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!"

The majority of Trump's Truth Social posts relating to Carroll on Thursday were screenshots of previous comments she had made about sex or sexuality on Twitter, now X, many years ago and with no obvious bearing on the current case.

These include a post she made on July 26, 2011, stating: "Would men have invented chastity belts, veils, and crocks if women weren't just unbelievably HOT?—Honey, you were BORN to seduce."

In another of the Carroll Twitter posts Trump shared, from June 4, 2014, she said: "There is no such thing as a slut. Only sexual geniuses."

A third, from June 7, 2014, saw Carroll comment: "The kinkiest sex toy is your brain."

Newsweek has contacted representatives of Donald Trump by email asking what these tweets have to do with Carroll's ongoing legal action, and why the former president is sharing them at this time. Carroll and her attorney have also been approached for comment by email.

Trump also shared three articles from conservative leaning publication The National Pulse, including one accusing Carroll of having a "bizarre Facebook post history" concerning "sex, violence and pornography" and another which claimed an expert who testified on her behalf on Thursday is a Democratic Party donor.

In total, Trump has been accused of sexual misconduct, including sexual assault, by at least 26 women. He has consistently denied any wrongdoing, telling a campaign rally in 2016 that "every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign."

During Thursday's court hearing, presiding Judge Lewis Kaplan clashed repeatedly with Trump attorney Alina Habba, who at one point he ordered to "sit down."

Habba had requested the trial be postponed to allow Trump to attend his mother-in-law's funeral, commenting: "Your Honor, clearly we are not going to finish this trial tomorrow. This trial will go into next week.

"I am asking Your Honor to have the kindness that my client deserves to be with his family tomorrow and not have to choose to miss the trial that he has a right to be here for."

In response, Kaplan told Habba that "nobody is stopping him from doing either," before instructing her to sit down.