Trump files counterclaim against Carroll for defamation

Former President Trump filed a counterclaim Tuesday in his latest legal battle with author E. Jean Carroll, accusing her of defamation just a month after a jury found him liable for sexual abusing and defaming her by denying her allegations.

Trump filed the counterclaim Tuesday, alleging that Carroll defamed him when she accused him of raping her during an appearance on CNN on May 10, just a day after a nine-member jury found that Trump did not commit rape. According to the counterclaim, Trump alleged that Carroll defamed him when she said, “Oh yes he did, oh yes he did,” in response to an interview question on CNN asking for her thoughts on the jury’s ruling that Trump was not liable for rape.

The counterclaim states that Carroll made “these false statements with actual malice and ill will with an intent to significantly and spitefully harm and attack.” According to the filing, Trump “has been the subject of significant harm to his reputation, which, in turn, has yielded an inordinate amount of damages sustained as a result.”

Trump’s lawyers argued that Carroll’s comments on CNN were made on multiple platforms to make sure they reached a large audience.

“The interview was on television, social media and multiple internet websites, with the intention of broadcasting and circulating these defamatory statements among a significant portion of the public,” Trump’s lawyers argued in the filing.

Carroll has filed two separate defamation lawsuits against Trump. The second lawsuit went to trial last month, when the jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages after finding the former president liable for sexually abusing — though not liable for raping — Carroll in the mid-1990s and defaming her by denying her claims in an October 2022 statement. Trump has since asked for a new trial.

Trump filed his new counterclaim in response to Carroll’s first lawsuit against the former president, which is a separate case that has yet to reach trial. This lawsuit accused the former president of defaming Carroll when she initially came forward with her allegations in June 2019, including during an interview Trump gave The Hill at the White House three days after the accusation was first published.

This first lawsuit includes comments Trump made about Carroll’s appearance and accusing her of lying about the rape allegation. It may be moving ahead again soon after being held up by some legal challenges; the Justice Department (DOJ) had attempted to previously step in for this case to replace Trump as the defendant, arguing that he made statements when he was employed as president.

After a judge granted Carroll’s request earlier this month to add the comments Trump made during a CNN town hall last month to the first lawsuit, the DOJ has signaled in recent court filings that it may be reconsidering its position. The DOJ has until July 13 to ask to step away from the case.

“Donald Trump again argues, contrary to both logic and fact, that he was exonerated by a jury that found that he sexually abused E Jean Carroll by forcibly inserting his fingers into her vagina,” Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, told The Hill. “Four out of the five statements in Trump’s so-called counterclaim were made outside of New York’s one-year statute of limitations. The other statement similarly will not withstand a motion to dismiss.”

“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,” Kaplan said.