The author E. Jean Carroll on Monday filed court papers searching for “very substantial” monetary damages from former President Donald Trump for his scathing remarks about her at a CNN town hall a day after losing a $5 million lawsuit by her earlier this month.
Carroll’s move got here as her lawyers asked a Manhattan federal court judge for permission to amend the unique defamation lawsuit, which she lodged against Trump in 2019, to reflect his recent statements on CNN about her, which they are saying are also defamatory.
“Trump’s defamatory statements post-verdict show the depth of his malice toward Carroll because it is difficult to assume defamatory conduct that would possibly be more motivated by hatred, unwell will, or spite,” the proposed amended grievance says.
“This conduct supports a really substantial punitive damages award in Carroll’s favor each to punish Trump, to discourage him from engaging in further defamation, and to discourage others from doing the identical,” the grievance says.
Carroll’s second lawsuit, filed in late 2022 and alleging rape and defamation, ended with a jury in that court after lower than three hours of deliberations finding Trump responsible for sexually abusing her and for defaming her last fall when he denied her allegations.
The author has said Trump raped her within the mid-Nineties in a dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan.
He denies sexually assaulting her, but has made a series of comments through the years accusing her of creating up the claim.
Carroll’s recent proposed amended lawsuit notes that in his CNN town hall interview on May 10, “Trump falsely stated that he didn’t sexually abuse Carroll, that he has no idea who Carroll was, and that Carroll’s now-proven accusation was a ‘fake’ and ‘made up story’ created by a ‘whack job.’ “
“Trump also insulted Carroll’s character and downplayed his sexual abuse of her by asking ‘what type of woman meets someone’ after which ‘inside minutes’ plays ‘hanky-panky in a dressing room,’ ” the amended grievance says.
The filing notes that about 3.3 million people watched the CNN broadcast, and heard the audience within the studio “applauding and laughing along uproariously to Trump’s comments.”
The filing cites several Twitter posts that echoed Trump’s “many lies and demeaning remarks” about Carroll.
“These and other similar messages are exactly what Trump intended,” the amended grievance says. “Trump used a national platform to demean and mock Carroll. He egged on a laughing audience as he made light of his violent sexual assault, called Carroll names, implied that Carroll was asking to be assaulted, and dismissed the jury’s verdict vindicating Carroll.”
If Judge Lewis Kaplan allows Carroll to amend her pending lawsuit, it could be the most recent example in a series of Trump’s statements about her adding to his civil legal peril.
Carroll, 79, went public along with her allegation against Trump in a June 2019 Latest York magazine article, at a time when he was still president.
She filed her first lawsuit against him in Latest York state court in November 2019, claiming he defamed her by saying she was lying and that she had been motivated a political agenda and a desire to spice up sales of a book when her allegations.
The primary lawsuit was transferred to Manhattan federal court when the Department of Justice sought to exchange Trump as a defendant, on the grounds that he was acting as president when he made those statements. Judge Kaplan refused to let the DOJ stand in Trump’s place, but appeals about his decision have prevented the lawsuit from going to trial yet.
Carroll filed a second lawsuit in Manhattan federal court last 12 months, making the most of a recent Latest York state law that allowed accusers in sexual assault or misconduct cases to file lawsuits inside a one-year window in the event that they would otherwise be barred by the civil statute of limitations.
That second grievance also alleged defamation, citing statements by Trump last fall that repeated his claim she made up being raped, calling her allegations “an entire con job,” and saying that Carroll was not his “type.”
That is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
