The New StatesmanThe New Statesman

CNN’s Town Hall let Donald Trump have the last laugh

By Sarah Baxter

11 May 2023 · 4 min read

Editor's Note

Trump’s ability to pour out "a firehose of lies" and his "gift for comedy" were on full display during his CNN Town Hall, E. Jean Carroll writes for The New Statesman. It was a "mockery of justice."

Victory was sweet while it lasted, but it took little more than 24 hours for Donald Trump to turn E Jean Carroll’s triumph into dust. On Tuesday 9 May the former Elle magazine agony aunt scored a notable victory over the former president of the United States when a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing her in the changing room of a New York department store in the mid-1990s and defaming her as a liar who wasn’t his “type”.

Leaving court with a $5m verdict in her favour, she shook hands cordially with Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, and told him, “He did it – and you know it.” Well played, E Jean.

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