Former President Donald Trump is countersuing columnist E. Jean Carroll, arguing that she owes him damages and a retraction for saying she was raped after a federal jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll, but not raping her.
Attorneys for Trump filed paperwork on Tuesday calling for Carroll to pay Trump unspecified compensatory and punitive damages and retract multiple statements.
A jury last month found Trump liable in a civil case for sexual abuse of Carroll in the 1990s and defamation. A judge in New York earlier this month permitted Carroll to amend her defamation lawsuit against Trump, a move allowing her to seek additional damages after she was originally awarded $5 million.
The former president’s lawyers cited comments that Carroll made in a CNN interview following the federal jury’s verdict. The lawyers said when asked about the jury saying she was not raped, Carroll said “Oh yes he did, oh yes he did,” among other statements.
Defamation lawsuit:Judge rules E. Jean Carroll may seek more damages against Trump
Trump’s attorneys, Alina Habba and Michael T. Madaio, wrote that the columnist “made these statements knowing each of them were false or with reckless disregard for their truth or falsity.” The former president has long employed an eye-for-an-eye legal strategy
Carroll’s attorney, Robbie Kaplan, said in a statement in response to Trump’s counterclaim that “Trump’s filing is thus nothing more than his latest effort to delay accountability for what a jury has already found to be his defamation of E Jean Carroll. But whether he likes it or not, that accountability is coming very soon.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, help is available through the National Sexual Assault Hotline: 800-656-HOPE (4673).
Contributing: Associated Press; David Jackson and John Fritze, USA TODAY
