E. Jean Carroll sought $10 million in damages from Trump for the post-conviction remarks

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NEW YORK, May 22 (Reuters) – Writer E. Jean Carroll on Monday asked to amend the first of her two defamation lawsuits against Donald Trump to seek at least $10 million in additional damages, citing the comments he made to CNN after the jury found him. responsible for sexually abusing him.

A federal jury in Manhattan found on May 9 that Trump sexually abused Carroll in the 1990s and then defamed her by lying about it in October 2022. The jury ordered him to pay Carroll $5 million in damages. Trump appealed the verdict and called Carroll’s claims “a complete con job.”

On Monday, Carroll’s lawyers pointed to Trump’s posts on Truth Social calling the verdict “disgraceful” and criticism of Carroll on CNN on May 10 in arguing that he should be allowed to amend his earlier lawsuit, saying it was defamed. by Trump by denying the incident. in 2019 comments, while he was president.

“Trump’s defamatory remarks after the verdict show the depth of his ill will toward Carroll because it is hard to imagine defamatory behavior that could possibly be motivated more by hatred, malice or malice,” his lawyers wrote. “This behavior supports a massive reward over punishment.”

Trump’s lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.

Carroll testified at trial that Trump lured her into a dressing room in the lingerie section of the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in 1995 or 1996, then slammed her against a wall and raped her. Two of Carroll’s friends told jurors that he told them about the incident shortly after it happened.

In a CNN town hall the day after the verdict, Trump said he “never met this woman” and called Carroll’s account a “fake,” “made up story” invented by a “whack job. ” Those statements are the basis of Carroll’s new filings.

Carroll, a former advice columnist for Elle magazine, filed her second lawsuit for both defamation and battery after New York passed a law giving sexual assault victims a new window to sue even if the statute of limitations has passed.

His original case in Nov 2019 was marred by appeals over whether Trump was immune from prosecution because he was president when he spoke.

Carroll’s lawyers said in a letter to US District Judge Lewis Kaplan on Monday that because Trump’s allegedly defamatory statements are essentially the same, the only open issue is whether he is immune. in making the first statement, and if not what damages he owes.

Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Luc Cohen

Thomson Reuters

Reports in the federal courts of New York. Previously worked as a correspondent in Venezuela and Argentina.

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