Fox News contributors Leo Terrell and Geraldo Rivera debated a Manhattan jury’s verdict finding former President Donald Trump liable of defamation and sexual battery in a civil case brought forth by E. Jean Carroll.
Carroll accused Trump of raping her in 1995 or 1996 in a dressing room at Manhattan’s Bergdorf Goodman department store, and sued him after he called her accusations a “hoax and a lie.” The jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages in the Tuesday defamation decision, but did not find the former president liable on any rape charges.
Terrell, a civil rights attorney, argued that supporters of Trump view the verdict as a “witch hunt” and that it will only benefit the former president in the 2024 presidential race.
“This woman went around on left-wing media and said she was raped,” Terrell said on “The Story with Martha MacCallum” on Tuesday. “With the lowest standard of evidence, preponderance of evidence, the jury said ‘no, that’s not true. We do not believe you.’ That’s a major, major concession and she lost on her biggest claim, the rape charge. She lost with the preponderance of evidence, lowest standard. I will submit to you, Martha, that Trump supporters are looking at this case as another witch hunt. The totality of all the civil criminal cases against Donald Trump for one reason only, they don’t want this man to run for president.”
Terrell cited an ABC News/Washington Post poll that found Trump trouncing President Joe Biden among voters’ support in a hypothetical 2024 election. He said Americans are hurting under the Biden administration, and polls will only view Trump more positively after these criminal and civil cases come to light.
Rivera accused Trump and Terrell of being “arrogant” for allegedly scoffing at the seriousness of the case and the impact it will have in the election. (RELATED: Trump Responds To Verdict)
“If you have a situation where there is a debate, a Republican debate, and I can see Ron DeSantis now: ‘Is it not a fact, Mr. President, that you battered in a sexual way, you attacked a woman in New York or a New York jury has found you liable for doing it.’ Can you imagine? Can you imagine that finger in your face? This pales in comparison to a political charge Disneyland or whatever the president can level at DeSantis. This is very, very serious.”
“You know, to minimize a charge of sexual battery in this day in age, I think you’re being naive,” Rivera continued. “In the same way the president was arrogant, Leo, you’re being arrogant if you think that this is nothing. This is not nothing. This is a sexual battery, a $5 million finding by a jury. Yes, he will appeal it and that appeal as it goes up the food chain will bring it back to the front page … he needs this like a hole in the head.”
Terrell told Rivera he attacked “75 million Trump supporters” by attacking the former president. He argued that Trump’s presidential primary contenders will point to this case, among his many legal battles, to their “own peril.”
“Mar-a-Lago raid, historic. Two impeachments, historic. Criminal charges, historic. A civil case, and guess what? His numbers keep going up. What does that tell you, Geraldo, what does that tell the other candidates? Trump is popular with the everyday people. Maybe not inside the beltway, Martha, I’ll give you that. But the everyday people.”
Rivera repeated that it is “partisan” to suggest that a sexual battery charge “is nothing,” and is a “bridge too far” for the average American voter.