Donald Trump

Trump Dismisses Sex Abuse Verdict and Gloats That It Will Help His 2024 Bid

Donald Trump's comments came during a CNN town hall on Wednesday in New Hampshire

FILE – Former President Donald Trump speaks at the National Rifle Association Convention in Indianapolis, on April 14, 2023.
AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File

Former President Donald Trump mocked E. Jean Carroll as a "whack job" and insisted her account of being sexually assaulted by him decades ago was "fake" and "made up" one day after a jury found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming the writer.

During a CNN town hall at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire on Wednesday, Trump was pressed on the verdict, one in which a nine-person New York jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages. Host Kaitlan Collins first asked Trump what he would say to voters who felt being found liable for sexually abusing a woman was disqualifying for a presidential candidates.

"Well, there arenโ€™t too many of them," the GOP presidential front-runner fired back. "Because my poll numbers just came out [and] they went up."

Former President Donald Trump was found liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll.

"My poll numbers went up, and they went up with the other fake charge too," Trump added, nodding to charges he faces in New York for allegedly falsifying business records related to hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels and another woman toward the end of his 2016 presidential campaign.

It's not clear what poll numbers Trump was referring to.

"Because whatโ€™s happening is theyโ€™re doing this for election interference. This woman I donโ€™t know her," he said of Carroll. "I never met her. I have no idea who she is."

For more on this story, go to NBC News.

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