Team Trump Fires Back After E. Jean Carroll Makes Court Move to Go After Him for More
Former President Donald Trump and his legal team are fighting back against a legal maneuver from writer E. Jean Carroll to use a long-stalled defamation lawsuit as a vehicle to get more money out of Trump.
Earlier this month, Carroll won a civil lawsuit against Trump in which the jury rejected her claim the former president raped her in the 1990s but awarded her $2 million in damages for sexual battery and $3 million for defamation.
Trump, the front-runner among Republicans running for president in 2024, has denied the allegations and is appealing the verdict.
On Monday, Carroll sought to amend a 2019 defamation lawsuit she filed against Trump for his comments when she first went public with her allegations, according to The New York Times.
She is seeking to include the jury verdict against the former president and his comments about her in a May 10 town hall on CNN in a demand for punitive damages.
Trump said of Carroll, “I have no idea who the hell she is. I don’t know who this woman is. … She’s a whack job.”
According to CNBC, Carroll is seeking $10 million from the former president.
The court filing said his statements at the town hall “show the depth of his malice toward Carroll, since it is hard to imagine defamatory conduct that could possibly be more motivated by hatred, ill will or spite,” the Times reported.
According to the report, Trump attorney Alina Habba said late Monday that Carroll was not entitled to anything from her 2019 civil suit, “let alone punitive damages.”
“We intend to vigorously oppose this motion, which we view as nothing more than a desperate, last-ditch effort by Ms. Carroll to upend this case,” Habba said.
The Times reported that Roberta Kaplan, a lawyer for Carroll told the judge in the case that Trump has threatened to sue her client “in retaliation and possibly to seek sanctions.”
In response to a question about whether Trump might sue Carroll, Habba said, “We have been paying attention to the statements made by Ms. Carroll in the press and are considering all options.”
She told NBC News that Carroll is just trying to cash in.
“Ms. Carroll’s eleventh-hour attempt to amend her complaint exposes the true motivation behind her numerous lawsuits,” Habba said.
Seemingly unfazed by the prospect of another payout, Trump fired back Tuesday on his Truth Social platform.
“I don’t know E. Jean Carroll, I never met her or touched her (except on a celebrity line with her African American husband who she disgustingly called the ‘Ape,’), I wouldn’t want to know or touch her, I never abused her or raped her or took her to a dressing room 25 years ago in a crowded department store where the doors are LOCKED, she has no idea when, or did anything else to her, except deny her Fake, Made Up Story, that she wrote in a book. IT NEVER HAPPENED, IS A TOTAL SCAM, UNFAIR TRIAL!” he posted.
In another post, the former president said, “The Carroll case is part of the Democrats playbook to tarnish my name and person, much like the now fully debunked Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, the 51 Intelligence Agents, FBI/Twitter Files, and so much more. It is being funded and tried by Democrat operatives, although this was denied by them, and when they got caught in the lie, the Clinton appointed judge would not let us use it in trial.
“Time will prove him to be highly partisan & very unfair. Where’s the dress she said she had?”
In addition to calling Carroll a “whack job” during the CNN town hall, he mocked her claims and gave his opinion of her story.
“What kind of a woman meet somebody and brings them up and within minutes, you’re playing hanky-panky in a dressing room, OK?” Trump said.
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