Former President Donald Trump has filed a countersuit against columnist E Jean Carroll, who was awarded $5 million by a jury after they found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming her.
Trump filed the counterclaim in Manhattan federal court, alleging that Carroll defamed him. The filing refers to statements made by Carroll before and after the jury’s verdict in May, including an interview with CNN where she claimed that Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s.
According to the filing, Carroll “made these false statements with actual malice and ill will with an intent to significantly and spitefully harm and attack (Trump’s) reputation, as these false statements were clearly contrary to the jury verdict.”
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Trump is seeking a retraction from Carroll, as well as compensatory and punitive damages of unspecified amounts.
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Roberta Kaplan, Carroll’s lawyer, responded to Trump’s filing by stating that it was “nothing more than his latest effort to delay accountability” for the verdict. Kaplan emphasized that Trump’s argument contradicts both logic and fact, as the jury had found him liable for sexually abusing Carroll.
She concluded by saying, “But whether he likes it or not, that accountability is coming very soon.”
