Trump Counterattacks: Former President Files Defamation Suit Against Accuser E. Jean Carroll
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is launching a legal counteroffensive against E. Jean Carroll, who accused him of rape.
Radar revealed that Trump's legal representatives filed a countersuit on Tuesday, June 27. The ex-president alleges that Carroll, aged 79, has maliciously tarnished his reputation during a television interview, following his liability verdict in a civil case for sexual misconduct against her in a New York department store in the '90s.
The verdict found the 45th president culpable of defamation after he denied the incident and dismissed the author as "not my type". He further described the entire case as a "hoax" and "con job."
Despite the civil trial's outcome that held Trump accountable for alleged sexual misconduct, a criminal trial did not find him guilty of rape, thus, he faced no charges.
The focus of Trump's lawyers is now on Carroll's recent appearance on CNN. Although the jury's verdict established that the Republican did "sexually abuse" her without explicitly stating "rape", Carroll declared, "Oh yes he did, oh yes he did."
In light of her comments, Trump is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, and demands that Carroll retract numerous assertions she has made.
Trump's legal team, Alina Habba and Michael T. Madaio, argue that Carroll intentionally "attacked" his reputation, either "knowing each of them were false or with reckless disregard for their truth or falsity."
In response to the countersuit, Carroll's lawyer, Robbie Kaplan, publicly stated, "Trump’s filing is thus nothing more than his latest effort to delay accountability for what a jury has already found to be his defamation of E. Jean Carroll. But whether he likes it or not, that accountability is coming very soon."
The former president has been entangled in multiple controversies lately. Notably, he recently entered a plea of not guilty to 37 charges concerning the alleged mishandling of classified documents, which were supposedly retained illicitly at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.