Washington: Former US President Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against reporter and author E. Jean Carroll, accusing her of defamation, a few weeks after a court found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming her, US media reported.
In May, a jury found it more likely than not that Trump is liable for battery based on Carroll’s accusations of sexual abuse in a dressing room in 1996, and ordered the former US leader to pay $2 million in damages. The jury also found Trump liable for defamation, ordering him to pay around $3 million more in damages for publicly rejecting the accusations. At the same time, the jury ruled that Carroll was not “raped,” but was rather sexually abused.
On Tuesday, Trump filed a claim against Carroll that alleged she had defamed him by publicly accusing him of rape during a show on CNN in May, a day after the jury found the former president not liable for it, The Hill reported.
“The interview was on television, social media and multiple internet websites, with the intention of broadcasting and circulating these defamatory statements among a significant portion of the public,” Trump’s lawyers was quoted by the newspaper as saying in the filing.
In 2019, Carroll accused Trump of trying to rape her in either 1995 or 1996 in a dressing room in New York City. The former US leader rejected the allegation back than, slamming it as false and saying he had never met the journalist. Later in the year, the author filed another lawsuit against Trump, accusing him of damaging her reputation and career after he called her a liar.
