E. Jean Carroll’s attorney says she may sue Trump again over CNN town hall comments

by Lauren Sforza - 05/11/23 3:53 PM ET

E. Jean Carroll’s lawyer said she may sue former President Trump again over comments he made at the CNN town hall Wednesday night.

In an interview with The New York Times, Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said Thursday that she is considering whether to pursue a third defamation lawsuit against Trump in light of comments he made during his CNN town hall appearance Wednesday evening.

“Everything’s on the table, obviously, and we have to give serious consideration to it,” Kaplan said. “We have to weigh the various pros and cons and we’ll come to a decision in the next day or so, probably.”

Just one day after a jury found Trump liable of sexual abuse and defamation against Carroll over her allegation that he raped her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s, Trump called Carroll a “whack job” during the town hall and dismissed concerns that he would lose voters over the verdict.

“This is a fake story. Made-up story,” Trump said at the town hall. He later added, “I have no idea who the hell she is. She’s a whack job.”

“What kind of a woman meets somebody and brings them up, and within minutes you’re playing hanky-panky in a dressing room,” Trump said, which was met with laughter from the attendees.

Carroll told the Times that she was asleep during Trump’s town hall, but that Kaplan sent her a transcript of Trump’s comments. She said she only read through the first paragraph.

“It’s just stupid, it’s just disgusting, vile, foul, it wounds people,” Carroll said.

The jury released a verdict this week that found Trump liable of sexual abuse and defamation, but not of rape. The jury found Trump had defamed Carroll with comments he made in a 2022 social media post calling her allegations a “complete con job,” and that she “is not my type.”

Carroll has another defamation lawsuit pending over comments Trump made when she first came out with the accusations in 2019. However, that lawsuit has been held up over questions of Trump’s immunity, because he made those statements while he was president.