E. Jean Carroll, the recommendation columnist who gained a $5 million sexual abuse and defamation award in opposition to former President Donald Trump, is looking for not less than $10 million extra in a court docket submitting Monday that seeks to carry him accountable for remarks he made after the decision.
The amended lawsuit was filed in Manhattan by Carroll’s attorneys, who mentioned Trump “doubled down” on derogatory remarks in regards to the former Elle journal columnist throughout a cable tv look a day after the decision.
“It’s laborious to think about defamatory conduct that would presumably be extra motivated by hatred, ailing will, or spite,” they wrote of Trump’s remarks at a CNN city corridor. “This conduct helps a really substantial punitive damages award in Carroll’s favor each to punish Trump, to discourage him from partaking in additional defamation, and to discourage others from doing the identical.”
A nine-person jury two weeks in the past determined Trump had sexually abused Carroll at an upscale Manhattan division retailer in early spring 1996. It additionally discovered that Trump had made false statements that broken her popularity after she went public along with her allegations in a 2019 guide.
Carroll testified through the trial that Trump raped her in a division retailer dressing room. Trump, who’s campaigning for the presidency, didn’t attend the trial or testify.
The jury determined Carroll hadn’t proved she had been raped, however discovered that Trump had sexually abused her. Trump continues to disclaim that the assault occurred. He mentioned Carroll made up the allegation to assist promote her guide.
Joe Tacopina, a Trump lawyer, declined to touch upon the brand new authorized declare.
Carroll defamation claims in opposition to Trump have proceeded in two separate lawsuits, one determined within the trial that simply concluded, and one other that beforehand dealt solely with derogatory remarks that Trump made in 2019 whereas he was nonetheless president.
That lawsuit, which has been tied up in still-unresolved authorized appeals, is the one to which Carroll, 79, has added her new claims.
Carroll’s attorneys requested for a speedy decision “whereas she stays in good well being and earlier than Donald Trump’s time and a focus are consumed solely by his presidential marketing campaign.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. authorities attorneys declined to remark.
Carroll’s attorneys added that “Trump was motivated by purely private causes, fairly than presidential or official causes,” saying he “implied that Carroll was too ugly for him to sexually assault, falsely acknowledged that Carroll had beforehand lodged faux allegations of sexual misconduct in opposition to different males, and invented a baseless narrative that Carroll fabricated her accusation for cash, to advertise a guide, or to additional a political conspiracy — with out possessing or pointing to 1 iota of help for these claims.”
Within the new declare, Carroll’s attorneys mentioned Trump, “undeterred by the jury’s verdict, continued in maliciously defaming Carroll but once more” on the CNN occasion.
“He doubled down on his prior defamatory statements, asserting to an viewers all too able to cheer him on that ‘I by no means met this girl. I by no means noticed this girl,’ that he didn’t sexually assault Carroll, and that her account — which had simply been validated by a jury of Trump’s friends in the future earlier than — was a ‘faux,’ ‘made up story’ invented by a ‘whack job.’ These statements resulted in enthusiastic cheers and applause from the viewers on dwell TV,” the attorneys wrote.
They added: “Trump used a nationwide platform to demean and mock Carroll. He egged on a laughing viewers as he made mild of his violent sexual assault, known as Carroll names, implied that Carroll was asking to be assaulted, and dismissed the jury’s verdict vindicating Carroll.”
