The day after a jury found former president Donald Trump liable for defaming and sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll, awarding her $5 million in damages, Trump mocked her on air during a CNN town hall. That turned out to be a pretty stupid move, as Carroll has now filed a new defamation suit against Trump that’s asking for a quite a bit more money, per the New York Times.
“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,” the filing says.
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After calling Carroll a “wack job,” Trump repeated in the town hall earlier this month—moderated by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, who parlayed it into a promotion—that he has “no idea” who Carroll is and that her account of the encounter was “fake.” Per my story on the town hall at the time:
Of course, Trump had to address the fact that he was photographed with Carroll prior to the alleged incident. “I had a picture taken years ago with her and her husband, nice guy, John Johnson,” Trump said. “He was a newscaster. Very nice man. She called him an ape—he happens to be African American—called him an ape. The judge wouldn’t allow us to put that in.” (There is no reporting that backs Trump’s claim of Carroll calling her husband an “ape.”)
Then he went after her pet: “Her dog or her cat was named ‘Vagina,’” he said, as the town hall audience laughed. “The judge wouldn’t allow us to put that in, all of these things. But with her they can put in anything, Access Hollywood…”
Carroll’s new lawsuit contends that Trump’s comments “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.”
Trump’s lawyer filed a notice of appeal after losing the trial. The whole legal battle, if anyone needs a reminder, stems from an incident at a Bergdorf Goodman’s department store in the mid-1990s in which Carroll claimed Trump forced himself on her in a dressing room.
It’s no surprise that he can’t seem to keep his mouth shut about his accuser, even after losing one highly publicized legal battle against her. May she empty his whole bank account.
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