Donald Trump bizarrely and falsely suggested on Wednesday that he had come out on top in his New York civil cases.
“Are you thinking of potentially trying to use campaign funds to pay some of the penalties?” a reporter asked the former president at a news conference following his meeting with Teamsters Union leaders in Washington, DC.
“What penalties?” Trump asked.
“In the New York fraud cause and the defamation case,” the reporter replied.
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” said Trump. “I mean, that’s been proven as far as I’m concerned.”
He claimed that “actually, we won in the court of appeals”.
Actually, he didn’t.
In the defamation case, jurors awarded writer E Jean Carroll an astonishing $83.3 million in damages on Friday. She had accused him of defaming her after she came forward in 2019 with allegations he raped her in 1996.
In a separate trial in May last year, a jury concluded that Trump was liable for sexually abusing, but not raping, Carroll and for defaming her. He was ordered to pay $5 million in damages. He has denied all wrongdoing and appealed that verdict; there has been no outcome yet.
He has also vowed to appeal Friday’s decision.
As for New York civil business case, Trump was found liable for fraud in that matter before the trial began.
Following an 11-week trial, Judge Arthur Engoron is expected to rule on six additional claims including falsifying business records and insurance fraud, and to rule on how much Trump and his co-defendants must pay, as well as whether they can continue to do business in New York.
New York Attorney General Letitia James has asked for $370 million in the lawsuit.
Engoron had previously ordered the dissolution of Trump’s businesses in the state, a decision which is on hold pending Trump’s appeal.