In April, author E. Jean Carroll sparred with Donald Trump’s lawyers during her civil rape and defamation trial against the former president. After the jury found Trump liable to Carroll, the former president appealed the verdict, and leveled his own defamation suit against the author. Once again, Carroll’s not taking his shit.
In a scathing response to Trump’s claim, Carroll’s attorneys eviscerated the former president and requested a motion to dismiss.
“Trump’s ‘tit for tat’ counterclaim is nothing more than his latest effort to spin his loss at trial,” reads the filing. “The unanimous jury found that Trump had sexually abused Carroll and that he had subsequently defamed her […] In essence, the jury in Carroll II found that Carroll was telling the truth and that Trump was not.”
The filing likens Trump’s claims against Carroll to “an article penned by Andy Borowitz in the New Yorker or by a writer at the Onion,” and argues that “here in federal court, where logic and reason rather than satire prevail, it is clear that Trump’s new counterclaim for defamation should be dismissed with prejudice.”
Since his loss in civil court, Trump has raged against Carroll, and repeated the various defamatory claims that motivated her lawsuit. In June, a Manhattan judge granted Carroll’s request to seek additional compensatory damages from the former president, after he attacked and mocked her during a televised CNN town hall event.
The request for additional damages will be included in a second defamation suit brought by Carroll against the former President in 2019. On Tuesday, the Department of Justice declined to certify that Trump had been acting in his capacity as president – and was thus subject to immunity – when he made the statements attacking Carroll that the suit is based upon.
“The circumstantial evidence of Mr. Trump’s subjective intent in making the allegedly defamatory statements does not support a determination in this case that he was sufficiently motivated by a desire to serve the United States Government,” the DOJ wrote.
Carroll’s second civil trial against Trump is scheduled to begin in January of 2024, and all we can say is that the former president’s court appearance calendar is packed.
Source link: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/e-jean-carroll-trump-defamation-suit-response-1234786674/
