Donald Trump and E Jean Carroll (L-R: Trump via Brandon Bell/Getty Images; AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
After getting hammered with a $5 million verdict, former President Donald Trump might kick off the next year with another courtroom face-off against writer E. Jean Carroll.
In a one-page order, Senior U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan set a trial date of Jan. 15, 2024, unless “the case has previously been entirely disposed of” before that time.
The brief scheduling order falls two days after the judge allowed Carroll to ratchet up her damages request for the remaining case to $10 million, double the amount of the first verdict. Carroll amended her initial defamation complaint after Trump ridiculed her during a recent CNN town hall, where the former president called her a “whack job” and described her account as a “made-up story.”
Before Carroll directly accused Trump of sexual battery, the “Ask E. Jean” columnist filed a defamation complaint after Trump told reporters that she was not his “type.” Trump also characterized her as a politically motivated fabulist and liar. A jury, however, credited Carroll’s claim that Trump sexually abused her in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman in the 1990s.
The lawsuit that she won was made possible by New York’s passage of the Adult Survivors Act, which suspended the statute of limitations on certain cases involving allegations of sexual abuse. Carroll filed her first lawsuit before that law came into effect, and that defamation case has stagnated amid questions about whether Trump has immunity under the Westfall Act for comments that he made to reporters during his time as president.
The Department of Justice under the stewardship of former Attorney General Bill Barr and current AG Merrick Garland have both answered that question in the affirmative. Judge Kaplan rejected the government’s position, and the matter was litigated extensively on appeal, where higher courts provided instructions on the law without a decisive resolution.
The Justice Department is studying the court’s guidance before deciding whether to continue supporting Trump on this issue, while simultaneously prosecuting him criminally. They have a deadline for that decision set for July 13.
When Carroll asked to amend her complaint, she noted the wide audience that heard Trump’s scorn. Some 3.3 million viewers watched the town hall, along with a crowd mostly comprised of Trump supporters laughing and clapping along with the jeers.
“Trump also insulted Carroll’s character and downplayed his sexual abuse of her by asking ‘what kind of woman meets someone’ and then ‘within minutes’ plays ‘hanky-panky in a dressing room,’” she wrote in the memo.
Carroll has argued that a full trial might not be necessary, as a federal jury already has resolved the question of liability. Only damages should be decided, Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan argues.
“As a result, the preclusive effect of the Carroll II jury verdict leaves nothing to resolve with respect to the merits of the Carroll I defamation claim, beyond the amount of Carroll’s damages,” Kaplan wrote late last month.
Though Carroll’s counsel and the judge share a surname, they are not related.
Read the one-page order here.
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