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Law and JusticeUnited States of America

Trump countersues E Jean Carroll for defamation

June 28, 2023

The former US president's filing hints his legal battle with the author, filled with media-traded accusations, won't end soon.

https://p.dw.com/p/4T8xR
Donald Trump waves at the media
The filing by Trump signals that his multi-front legal fight with Carroll is unlikely to end soon Image: Alon Skuy/Getty Images

Former US President Donald Trump sued US author E. Jean Carroll for defamation in his latest legal battle with the author.

He alleged that she falsely accused him of rape after a jury in a civil trial found him guilty of abusing her in May.

The jury's found that Trump sexually abused and defamed her, but that he did not rape her, but in a tv interview she allegedly again claimed he raped her. 

Trump seeks retraction and compensation

The former president and the author has been involved in several legal disputes since she first went public about her allegations in 2019.

Carroll testified in court that Trump has raped her in a New York City store in mid 1990s.

She amended the first of her two lawsuits against Trump and sought an additional $10 million (€9.1 million) in damages in May, citing his denials during a CNN appearance the day after the verdict in which he was cleared of rape but not sexual abuse.

Trump has denied raping Carroll and was appealing the verdict. But she insisted that he had raped her. 

In Tuesday's filling in the Manhattan federal court he asked for a retraction as well as unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

Robert Kaplan, Carroll's lawyer, said that Trump's filing was another effort by the ex-president to "delay accountability."

E. Jean Carroll is photographed as she arrives at court.
E. Jean Carroll accused Trump or raping her in the mid-1990sImage: John Minchill/AP Photo/picture alliance

"Donald Trump again argues, contrary to both logic and fact, that he was exonerated by a jury that found that he sexually abused E. Jean Carroll," Kaplan said.

The former president is running to retake the White House in 2024 and has a comfortable lead over his Republican rivals.

ns/lo (Reuters, dpa)