E. Jean Carroll wants to update her ongoing defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump to add more allegedly libelous statements by the former president after he was ordered by a jury to pay her $5 million in damages.
Trump, 76, used his social media platform Truth Social to slam the recent jury verdict that found him liable of sexually abusing the writer in the 1990s and then defaming her when she went public in 2019.
The 45th president also went on a CNN town hall the night after the May 9 verdict. During the contentious town hall, Trump called the case “a rigged deal.” He also claimed he didn’t know Carroll and branded her “a whack job.”
Now, Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan is asking a judge to allow her to amend the pending defamation lawsuit to add Trump’s recent statements saying they support heavy punitive damages in the case.
“Mere minutes after the verdict became public, Trump repeated the defamatory lie that he had no idea who Carroll was and again claimed that her accusation of sexual assault was politically motivated,” Kaplan wrote in papers filed Monday in the open Manhattan federal court civil case.
“I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS. THIS VERDICT IS A DISGRACE – A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
And “approximately 3.3 million viewers watched the CNN broadcast” where Trump allegedly lied about not sexually abusing Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room and claimed he didn’t know her — similar to statements for which the jury already found him liable of defamation, Kaplan argued.
“This conduct supports a very substantial punitive damages award in Carroll’s favor both to punish Trump, to deter him from engaging in further defamation, and to deter others from doing the same,” Kaplan wrote.
But Kaplan also said that the proposed changes to the case don’t “change the nature” of Carroll’s defamation claim against Trump “in the slightest, and raises no new issues” that would delay the case.
Trump has filed a notice of appeal in the sexual abuse case.
In the sexual abuse case, the jury also found that Trump defamed Carroll with a lengthy Oct. 12, 2022 post on Truth Social calling her case a “complete con job” and a “hoax.”
Carroll still has an open defamation case against the former commander in chief over statements he made when she went public with her claims in 2019.
That case was held up since Trump claimed immunity and since the U.S. government sought to replace Trump as a defendant all because he was in office when he made the comments.
Trump’s lawyer didn’t immediately return a request for comment Monday.