E. Jean Carroll Wants to Add Trump’s CNN Town Hall Comments to Defamation Suit
(Bloomberg) -- The New York author who won a $5 million sexual-abuse trial against Donald Trump this month is seeking to amend an earlier defamation suit against the former president to add remarks he made about her on a recent CNN town hall and demand $10 million in damages.
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E. Jean Carroll on Monday asked a federal judge in Manhattan to allow additional details in the suit in which she claims Trump defamed her from the White House in 2019 by calling her a liar when she went public with her allegation that he raped her in a dressing room more than two decades ago.
That suit — which hinges on whether Trump had presidential immunity in 2019 — is still winding its way toward trial and did not previously specify damages. Trump’s new remarks on CNN bolster Carroll’s claim that his 2019 comments were not an official duty, according to the filing.
Trump’s “malicious repetition of materially identical defamatory statements about Carroll” on CNN were made “long after his presidency had ended,” her lawyer Roberta Kaplan said in the filing. That “only underscores the personal nature of his June 2019 conduct,” she said.
During the televised town hall, which aired one day after the sexual-abuse verdict, Trump lashed out at Carroll, calling her allegations “a fake story” and dismissing her as a “wack job” in the question and answer session from New Hampshire.
“Ms. Carroll’s eleventh hour attempt to amend her complaint exposes the true motivation behind her numerous lawsuits,” Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba said without elaborating.
A federal jury in Manhattan on May 9 found Trump liable for sexual abuse in a suit Carroll filed last year under a New York law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on such claims.
Kaplan also wants to add detail from Trump’s deposition in the case that she says will demonstrate a “total lack of official process” around the remarks he issued about Carroll while he was in the White House. Kaplan argues the testimony also undercuts Trump’s primary defense — that his denial was an official duty as president.
Carroll claims Trump assaulted her in a dressing room more than two decades ago. The lawsuit she won also included a claim for defamation, based on an October 2022 post on social media in which Trump repeated many of his remarks about Carroll that had already triggered the earlier defamation suit.
Read More: Trump Defamation Immunity Defense Narrowed by DC Appeals Court
The case is Carroll v. Trump, 1:20-cv-07311, US District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
The New York author who won a $5 million sexual-abuse trial against Donald Trump this month is seeking to to add remarks he made about her on a recent CNN town hall and seek another $10 million in damages.
E. Jean Carroll on Monday asked a federal judge in Manhattan to allow additional details in the suit in which she claims Trump defamed her from the White House in 2019 by calling her a liar when she went public with her allegation that he raped her in a dressing room more than two decades ago.
That suit — which hinges on whether Trump had presidential immunity in 2019 — is still winding its way toward trial and did not previously specify damages. Trump’s new remarks on CNN bolster Carroll’s claim that his 2019 comments were not an official duty, according to the filing.
Trump’s “malicious repetition of materially identical defamatory statements about Carroll” on CNN were made “long after his presidency had ended,” her lawyer Roberta Kaplan said in the filing. That “only underscores the personal nature of his June 2019 conduct,” she said.
During the televised town hall, which aired one day after the sexual-abuse verdict, Trump lashed out at Carroll, calling her allegations “a fake story” and dismissing her as a “wack job” in the question and answer session from New Hampshire.
“Ms. Carroll’s eleventh hour attempt to amend her complaint exposes the true motivation behind her numerous lawsuits,” Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba said without elaborating.
A federal jury in Manhattan on May 9 found Trump liable for sexual abuse in a suit Carroll filed last year under a New York law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on such claims.
Kaplan also wants to add detail from Trump’s deposition in the case that she says will demonstrate a “total lack of official process” around the remarks he issued about Carroll while he was in the White House. Kaplan argues the testimony also undercuts Trump’s primary defense — that his denial was an official duty as president.
Carroll claims Trump assaulted her in a dressing room more than two decades ago. The lawsuit she won also included a claim for defamation, based on an October 2022 post on social media in which Trump repeated many of his remarks about Carroll that had already triggered the earlier defamation suit.
Read More: Trump Defamation Immunity Defense Narrowed by DC Appeals Court
The case is Carroll v. Trump, 1:20-cv-07311, US District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
(Updates with detail on damages sought in the lawsuit.)
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