E. Jean Carroll Seeks Additional Damages After Trump’s CNN Town Hall
Author E. Jean Carroll is seeking additional damages from former President Donald Trump after he repeated claims against her during a CNN town hall earlier this month. According to The New York Times, Monday’s filing came as an addition to a pending, separate defamation suit filed by Carroll against Trump in 2019.
Trump was ordered on May 9 to pay Carroll $5 million dollars in restitution after being found liable for sexual battery and defamation against her. The day after the ruling, Trump appeared on CNN for a messy town hall Q&A during which he mocked Carroll and accused her of having faked her claims against him.
“I swear on my children, which I never do, I have no idea who this woman [is] — this is a fake story, a made-up story,” Trump said to a chorus of audience laughter.
Trump also doubled down on comments he made justifying unwanted sexual advances toward women in the infamous Access Hollywood tape.
“I can take it back if you’d like to, but if you’re a famous person, if you’re a star — and I’m not referring to myself — I’m saying people that are famous, people that are stars, people that are rich, people that are powerful. They tend to do pretty well in a lot of different ways, OK?” he told host Kaitlan Collins. “You would like me to take that back, I can’t take it back because it happens to be true. I’ve said it’s been true for 1 million years, approximately 1 million years, perhaps a little longer than that.”
In the aftermath of the town hall, Carroll’s lawyers indicated that the author was mulling seeking additional damages. “Everything’s on the table, obviously, and we have to give serious consideration to it,” Roberta Kaplan, Carroll’s attorney, told the Times in an interview after the broadcast.
On Monday, Kaplan explained the decision to move forward with the filing to the Times. “It makes a mockery of the jury verdict and our justice system if he can just keep on repeating the same defamatory statements over and over again,” she said.
Trump has already filed an appeal challenging the ruling against him.