E. Jean Carroll isn't done suing Donald Trump - seeks additional damages after CNN town hall

AP Photo/Craig Ruttle

E. Jean Carroll isn’t finished with Donald Trump yet. Fresh off a multi-million dollar jury award in damages in a defamation lawsuit, she saw Trump’s town hall performance on CNN and she has asked a judge to update her pending original defamation lawsuit. She’s asking for a “very substantial punitive damages award.”

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A jury awarded her $5M in damages earlier this month. The jury decided that Trump sexually abused Carroll in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s and then defamed her when she made public her accusations against him. Now she says he defamed her again during the town hall on CNN. She hopes to deter Trump from future remarks. Trump referred to her as a “whack job” during that event.

At various points, he denied that anything happened with Carroll but also seemed to shame her for the assault she says happened in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room after a chance encounter.

“What kind of a woman meets somebody and brings them up and within minutes, you’re playing hanky-panky in a dressing room, okay?” Trump said.

Trump did as Trump does – he went to social media to complain about the verdict against him. He made several unflattering remarks against Carroll during the town hall, which was held the night after the jury’s decision. Her amended complaint notes that and his statements against her were the same ones he made which won her a monetary award.

In a court filing late Monday, Carroll attorney Roberta Kaplan said her client will be seeking a “very substantial punitive damages award” for Trump’s remarks.

Asked about his reaction to the verdict by CNN moderator Kaitlan Collins, Trump responded “by repeating many of the same defamatory statements for which the jury had just found him liable the day before,” the filing said.

“During the exchange, Trump falsely stated that he did not sexually abuse Carroll, that he has no idea who Carroll was, and that Carroll’s now-proven accusation was a ‘fake’ and ‘made up story’ created by a ‘wack job,'” among other insults, according to the filing.

“This conduct supports a very substantial punitive damages award in Carroll’s favor both to punish Trump, to deter him from engaging in further defamation, and to deter others from doing the same,” it said.

The amended suit seeks a total of at least $10 million in compensatory damages for her defamation claims and additional “punitive damages in an amount to be determined at trial.”

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So, she’s doubling down and looking for twice what she was previously awarded. Five million last time, ten million this time. Pretty soon those millions begin to add up.

Trump’s lawyer had words for this development. “Ms. Carroll’s eleventh hour attempt to amend her complaint exposes the true motivation behind her numerous lawsuits.” The Trump campaign did not issue a statement.

This case isn’t the first one filed against Trump by Ms. Carroll. It’s the second one. A previous lawsuit accused Trump of defaming her by calling her a liar when she went public with her accusations against Trump in 2019, while he was president. The case was tied up over the question of whether or not Trump could be held liable for comments while he was president. The original case is again pending before the U.S. District Court in New York after it was sent there by a Washington appeals court.

Trump was found liable in the civil trial of sexually abusing the writer in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s but he is not liable for alleged rape. The nine-person jury said it was not proven by a “preponderance of the evidence” that Trump raped Carroll.

Trump has filed notice that he’s appealing the $5 million award.

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