E. Jean Carroll adds Trump post-verdict remarks to defamation case

Two weeks ago, a nine-person jury decided that Trump had sexually abused Carroll in an upscale Manhattan department store in early spring 1996. It also found that Trump had made false statements that harmed his reputation after going public with his allegations in a 2019 book.

Carroll testified during the trial that Trump raped her in the dressing room of a department store. Trump, who is campaigning for the presidency, did not attend the trial or testify.

The jury decided that Carroll had not proven that she had been raped, but found that Trump had sexually assaulted her. Trump continues to deny the attack took place. He said Carroll made up the allegation to help sell his book.

Joe Tacopina, a lawyer for Trump, declined to comment on the new lawsuit.

Carroll’s defamation claims against Trump have been the subject of two separate lawsuits, one decided in the just-concluded trial, and another that previously only dealt with derogatory remarks Trump made in 2019 while he was still president.

That lawsuit, which has been tied to still unresolved legal challenges, is the one to which Carroll, 79, added his new claims.

Carroll’s attorneys have called for a speedy resolution “while she remains in good health and before Donald Trump’s time and attention is fully consumed by his presidential campaign.”

A spokesman for US government lawyers declined to comment.

Carroll’s lawyers added that “Trump was motivated by purely personal reasons, rather than presidential or official reasons,” saying he “implied that Carroll was too ugly to sexually assault him, falsely stated that Carroll had previously filed false allegations of sexual misconduct against other men, and fabricated an unsubstantiated account that Carroll fabricated his accusation for money, to promote a book, or to advance a political conspiracy – without owning or indicating an iota of support for these claims.

In the new lawsuit, Carroll’s attorneys said Trump, “undeterred by the jury’s verdict, persisted in maliciously defaming Carroll once again” at the CNN event.

“He doubled down on his earlier defamatory statements, telling an audience too ready to cheer him on that ‘I’ve never met that woman. I’ve never seen that woman,” that he didn’t sexually assault Carroll, and that his story — which had just been validated by a jury of Trump’s peers the day before — was a “fake,” “story. invented ‘invented by a ‘rotten job.’ These statements drew enthusiastic cheers and applause from the audience on live television,” the lawyers wrote.

They added: “Trump used a national platform to belittle and mock Carroll. He pushed a laughing audience as he shed light on his violent sexual assault, called Carroll’s names, implied that Carroll was asking to be assaulted and rejected the jury’s verdict justifying Carroll.