E. Jean Carroll seeks new damages from Trump for commentary on CNN
E. Jean Carroll, who won $5 million in damages from former President Donald J. Trump this month, is now demanding a “very significant” additional amount in response to his insults on a CNN program just a day after she allegedly sexually assaulted her. and libel case.
Ms. Carroll’s indictment in Manhattan federal court on Monday is designed to add to the financial pain for Mr. Trump. The jury in her civil case on May 9 found him liable for sexual assault and libel. It ordered him to pay Ms. Carroll, a former advice columnist and fixture in Manhattan media circles, $2 million for the sexual assault and $3 million for the libel.
Monday’s charge came in a separate libel lawsuit brought by Ms Carroll in 2019 against Mr Trump, 76, who faces the same judge who presided over the civil trial but had been sidelined by appeals. The older case stemmed from comments Mr Trump made that year shortly after she said he raped her in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s. That lawsuit is still pending.
On May 10, Mr. Trump went on CNN and reiterated his previous denials about the episode, calling her account “fake” and a “made-up story.” Despite a photo showing them together, he again claimed he never met Ms Carroll, 79, calling her a “crazy job” and saying the recent civil suit was “a rigged deal”.
The court filing Monday argues that Mr Trump’s defamatory statements following the verdict “show the depth of his malice towards Carroll, as it is hard to imagine that defamatory conduct could possibly be more motivated by hatred, evil will or spite.”
“This conduct supports very substantial damages in Carroll’s favor, both to punish Trump, to deter him from engaging in further defamation, and to deter others from doing the same,” the filing said.
Mr. Trump continues to challenge the jury’s decision. After the ruling, his attorney Joseph Tacopina filed an appeal.
Ms. Carroll’s attorney, Roberta A. Kaplan, said in a brief interview Monday that Mr. Trump’s statements on CNN, “literally the day after the verdict,” made it all the more important for Ms. Carroll to get the pending libel lawsuit to continue.
“It’s a mockery of the jury verdict and our justice system if he can just keep repeating the same defamatory statements over and over again,” Ms Kaplan said.