On the heels of last month's $5 million judgment against him in a sexual assault and defamation case, former US president Donald Trump has filed a countersuit against the writer E. Jean Carroll, alleging that she has defamed him.
Trump's motion, submitted in federal court in Manhattan late Tuesday night, June 27, references instances both before and after the judgment when Carroll publicly claimed that Trump raped her.
While the jury found Trump guilty of sexually assaulting Carroll in the 1990s in a Manhattan department store dressing room, they did not find him guilty of rape as she had long maintained. The verdict was handed down last month.
Trump's Counterclaim
According to The Washington Post, Trump's complaint states that Carroll "made these false statements with actual malice and ill will with an intent to significantly and spitefully harm and attack [Trump's] reputation, as these false statements were clearly contrary to the jury verdict."
Roberta A. Kaplan, Carroll's attorney, said in a statement that the lawsuit was just Trump's "latest effort to delay accountability" for his defamation of Carroll, which a jury had previously ruled to be true.
Kaplan said that Carroll's remarks listed in the Trump complaint were made after the one-year statute of limitations in New York had expired.
Trump presented the counterclaim in his response to Carroll's updated lawsuit, in which Carroll accused Trump of more defamation for statements Trump made during a CNN special event on May 10 - just after the jury's $5 million award in the original case. That case will go to trial at the beginning of the new year.
In their lawsuit, Trump's legal team points to a CNN interview with Carroll the day following the judgment, in which she was questioned about the jury's decision to find Trump not guilty of rape. Carroll affirmed, "Oh yes, he did, oh yes, he did."
Trump's attorneys claim in the petition that the interview was aired on television, social media, and other internet websites with the objective of broadcasting and spreading these defamatory words among a large section of the public.
Alleged Defamation
In 2019, while Trump was still president, Carroll made her first public accusation of rape against him. She has since repeated the claim in her writing, legal documents, and media appearances.
Trump has denied the claims vigorously, including in a message he made public on social media last year in which he called them a "Hoax and a lie." Carroll countersued, accusing him of battery and defamation.
The Washington Post said that Trump had been accused by more than a dozen separate women of sexual assault or misconduct, but none of these cases have ever been taken to trial. In the Carroll case, he called the $5 million decision a "disgrace" and plans to challenge it. Trump has been instructed to make a deposit while this develops.
