E. Jean Carroll can seek more Trump damages post-CNN: Judge – A federal judge allowed E. Jean Carroll to seek more damages from Donald Trump following a CNN town hall, where the former president ridiculed sexual assault allegations that a jury unanimously believed.
“We look forward to moving ahead expeditiously on E. Jean Carroll’s remaining claims,” Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan wrote in a statement.
E. Jean Carroll and Donald Trump (Photos left to right: AP Photo/John Minchillo and Emily Elconin/Getty Images)E. Jean Carroll can seek more Trump damages post-CNN: Judge
In early May, Carroll was awarded $5 million by a jury finding that Trump sexually abused her in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman in the mid-1990s — and then defamed her after she went public. That verdict, however, only resolved one of two lawsuits filed by Carroll, with a top count seeking liabilities under New York’s Adult Survivors Act.
Before that law was passed, Carroll filed a defamation lawsuit over Trump’s remarks to reporters during his presidency that the “Ask E. Jean” columnist wasn’t his “type.” He also attacked Carroll as a politically and financially motivated fabulist, a claim Trump continues to make to this day.
The day after the verdict, Trump sparred with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at a town hall interview and doubled down on many of the comments that invited the original defamation suit. Trump called Carroll a “whack job” and described her account of the abuse as a “made-up story.” Carroll quickly moved to amend her complaint — and then ratcheted up her requested award to $10 million, twice the amount of her original verdict.
Senior U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who isn’t related to Carroll’s attorney, gave the green light to that request with little fanfare or explanation on Tuesday. The judge said that an opinion explaining that decision “may follow.”
For now, he noted, “The amended complaint is deemed served and filed today.”
Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina declined to comment.
