Former President Donald Trump said he was “disappointed” with his legal team Friday after attending arguments in Manhattan federal court to overturn the $5 million judgment against him in E. Jean Carroll’s sexual abuse lawsuit.
“I have all this legal talent, but legal talent cannot overcome rigged judges,” the Republican presidential candidate told reporters from Trump Tower after the hearing — as the group of attorneys awkwardly stood behind him.
“They can’t overcome a 4% Republican area,” Trump, 78, said of the Empire State’s majority Democratic makeup. “And I am disappointed in my legal talent, I’ll be honest with you.
“They’re good, they’re good people, talented people,” he added, seemingly contradicting himself.
Trump’s legal team earlier Friday argued to throw out the jury verdict finding the former president liable for sexual abuse and defamation.
Trump, who pulled up in a motorcade and discreetly entered the 2nd Circuit federal appeals court in Lower Manhattan at around 10 a.m., was mostly subdued for the roughly 25 minute hearing.
His lawyer John Sauer told the three-judge panel that the verdict should be overturned, in part because the trial judge allegedly wrongfully allowed jurors to hear testimony from Jessica Leeds about her claims Trump once groped her on an airplane in 1979.
At the press conference, Trump blasted Leeds’ account, claiming the decades-old allegations were false and had no proof to back them up.
“The story has followed me for years,” Trump said, noting there were, “no police reports, no witnesses, no corroboration of any kind, no criminal suggestions, no nothing.”
But Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan defended Leeds’ testimony, claiming it was evidence of Trump’s formula when abusing women.
“He had a pattern of pleasant[ly] chatting with a woman…and then all of a sudden out of nowhere he would, for lack of a better term, pounce,” Kaplan said, prompting Trump to shake his head.
“Mr Trump is here today,” Kaplan told the judges. “He was given every opportunity by Judge [Lewis] Kaplan to show up at this trial … to take the stand and rebut all this evidence. He did not. He did not put on a single witness.”
Sauer called Carroll’s claims a “a quintessential he-said she-said case” and argued that Carroll was “funded” by Trump’s “political enemies.”
The judges appeared skeptical of Sauer’s arguments to toss the verdict, with Circuit Judge Danny Chin at one point reminding Sauer: “As you know, we give great deference to district courts” on the kinds of “evidentiary” issues being argued here.
Trump, wearing a dark blue suit and red tie, left the courtroom without saying anything.
He and the sharply dressed “Ask E. Jean” advice columnist didn’t look at each other while inside the courtroom.
When Trump first entered the courtroom he smiled and nodded at the court sketch artist before taking a seat at the defense table.
Preparations started several days ago for Trump to safely be able to attend the arguments in person.
While Trump didn’t say anything to the press on his way into or out of court he held a press conference at Trump Tower less than two hours later.
Trump was found liable in May 2023 of sexually assaulting the Manhattan journalist in a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room in 1996 and then defaming her in an Oct. 12, 2022 Truth Social post calling her lawsuit a “hoax.”
Trump, who has long-denied attacking Carroll, didn’t attend the trial last year.
Trump’s lawyers have argued the jury’s verdict should be tossed because evidence was allowed at trial that should have been excluded, while other evidence was excluded that should have been permitted.
They argued, too, that the ex-president couldn’t get a fair trial in the Big Apple.
— Additional reporting by Emily Crane
