Global Courant
A federal judge on Tuesday granted a motion by E. Jean Carroll to file an amended defamation suit against former President Donald Trump seeking at least $10 million, based in part on recent comments Trump made on CNN.
The motion for an amended complaint came after Trump called Carroll a “job” at a CNN town hall in May — the day after Carroll won a $5 million judgment against him in another civil suit alleging sexual assault and libel .
At the CNN event, Trump said, “I never met this woman. I never saw this woman,” and called the writer’s claims “fake” and “fabricated,” her lawyers said when searching for the amended complaint.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan granted that motion. The decision came on the same day the former president was arrested and pleaded not guilty in Florida on federal charges involving classified documents.
“We look forward to moving forward quickly with E. Jean Carroll’s remaining claims,” said Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan, who is not related to the judge.
The pending defamation case dates back to 2019, when Carroll, a writer, publicly accused Trump, who was a sitting president at the time.
The civil verdict and $5 million verdict reached by a jury in May was filed in 2022 in response to comments Trump made that year as a private citizen.
Carroll stated that Trump raped her in 1995 or 1996 in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman department store near his home on Fifth Avenue.
Last month, a New York jury found Trump liable for sexually assaulting her and libel, but did not find the evidence showed Trump raped her.
Following CNN’s action, Carroll’s attorney filed an amended complaint in the pending case seeking new damages.
Trump on the network “doubled down on his previous defamatory statements,” Carroll’s lawyers wrote.
Trump spokesperson Alina Habba said on Tuesday that her team does not believe Carroll should have amended the defamation suit.
“We state that she should not be allowed to retroactively change her legal theory, at the eleventh hour, to avoid the consequences of an adverse finding against her,” Habba said in a statement.
Carroll went public with the allegations against Trump in her 2019 book What Do We Need Men For? A modest proposal.”
She then sued Trump, claiming he defamed her by calling her a liar. That case was deadlocked on appeal over issues related to whether Trump could be held liable for comments he made while president.
