Topline
E. Jean Carroll asked a federal court on Monday to award a “very substantial” amount in damages after former President Donald Trump denied sexually assaulting her at a CNN town hall earlier this month, after a New York jury ordered the former president to pay Carroll about $5 million for defamation and sexual abuse.
FILE – E. Jean Carroll arrives to a courthouse in New York, Tuesday, April 25, 2023. A civil jury’s … [+]
Key Facts
Carroll asked a judge to amend a pending 2019 defamation suit against Trump in Manhattan federal court to include his comments on CNN, following “Trump’s defamatory statements post-verdict” that the complaint alleges “show the depth of his malice toward Carroll.”
The suit requests “a very substantial punitive damages award” to Carroll in order to “punish” Trump, deter him from defaming Carroll more and to “deter others from doing the same.”
Carroll’s attorney announced May 11—one day after Trump’s CNN appearance and two days after a jury found him liable in a separate defamation and sexual assault case—that they were mulling another defamation suit against former President Donald Trump after he used his appearance on a CNN town hall to again deny sexually abusing Carroll.
In the town hall, Trump called the trial “a rigged deal,” called Carroll a “wack job,” denied knowing Carroll and said her claims were “fake” and a “made-up story.”
Key Background
In 2019, Carroll first accused Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s. Trump denied the encounter and claimed Carroll was “not my type,” leading the author to sue the then-president for defamation. That case has ricocheted in the court system for years, as Trump sought to eliminate the lawsuit on the grounds that Trump made his comments in his capacity as president, but it remains pending. Last year, Carroll filed a second lawsuit that focused on the rape allegation, prompted by a New York state law that gave adult victims of sexual assault a one-year window to file litigation even if the statute of limitations has passed. Jurors in Manhattan found Trump liable for sexual abuse—but not rape—in the second lawsuit, ordering him to pay roughly $2 million for sexual abuse and $3 million for defamation.
Crucial Quote
“It makes a mockery of the jury verdict and our justice system if he can just keep on repeating the same defamatory statements over and over again,” Roberta Kaplan, Carroll’s attorney, told the New York Times.
Further Reading
E. Jean Carroll Seeks New Damages From Trump for Comments on CNN (New York Times)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/05/22/e-jean-carroll-seeks-substantial-damages-from-trump-after-cnn-town-hall/