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Retired journalist E. Jean Carroll would win even greater damages if she sues former President Donald Trump for a third time, an attorney has said.
Carroll's lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, has obtained a transcript of Trump's January 17 press conference in which he again claimed that she was lying when she said he sexually assaulted her in the mid-1990s at a New York City department store. Kaplan told a court that Trump defamed Carroll in his comments, setting up a possible third defamation case.
Bryan M. Sullivan, Hunter Biden's attorney and a founding partner at Los Angeles-based Early Sullivan Wright Gizer & McRae, told Newsweek that a third defamation case would likely be even more costly for Trump than the previous two.
"She can sue him a third time, and precedence has been established from the first two cases. The damages would likely be increased the third time," he said.
Sullivan said that the former president's comments also open the prospect of a gag order or contempt proceedings in the ongoing second defamation trial.
"It would give the court potential grounds to issue an injunction precluding Trump from speaking about the claims that can be subsequently enforced in contempt proceedings," he said.
Newsweek reached out to Trump's attorney via email for comment on Wednesday.
Courts have twice found that Trump has defamed Carroll by claiming she fabricated her allegations against him. In the first case in May 2023, a jury awarded her $5 million for sexual assault and defamation.
In September, a second court found that Trump had defamed Carroll in other comments in 2019 and a jury is currently hearing evidence before deciding whether to award Carroll the $10 million she is requesting.
Trump's January 17 press conference comments and his 30 social media posts the same day open the prospect of a third defamation case.
In the latest case, Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled in September that Trump had also defamed Carroll in 2019 when he said she invented her claims that he sexually assaulted her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. A jury is currently hearing evidence to decide how much in damages to award Carroll in that second case.
In her submission, filed on Saturday, Roberta Kaplan informed the court of the press conference:
"After leaving the courthouse on January 17, defendant gave a press conference in which he, among other things, repeated his defamatory statements about Ms. Carroll.
"We learned about that press conference later that evening, promptly prepared a video and transcript of the portion we intended to put into evidence, and sent the video and transcript to defendant's counsel," she wrote.
She quoted Trump from the press conference as stating:
"The witness today, the person I never knew, I never had anything to do with, it's a totally rigged deal, this whole thing is rigged—election interference. But, this is a person I have no idea—until this happened, obviously—I have no idea who she was, and nor could I care less. It's a rigged deal, it's a made-up, fabricated story."
Trump then followed that up with 30 Truth Social posts on the same day, in which he again attacked Carroll's credibility.
The majority of Trump's January 17 posts relating to Carroll were screenshots of previous comments she had made about sex or sexuality on Twitter, now X, many years ago and with no obvious bearing on the current case.
These include a post she made on July 26, 2011, stating: "Would men have invented chastity belts, veils, and crocks if women weren't just unbelievably HOT?—Honey, you were BORN to seduce."
In another of the Carroll Twitter posts Trump shared, from June 4, 2014, she said: "There is no such thing as a slut. Only sexual geniuses."
A third, from June 7, 2014, saw Carroll comment: "The kinkiest sex toy is your brain."
Trump also shared three articles from conservative-leaning publication The National Pulse, including one accusing Carroll of having a "bizarre Facebook post history" concerning "sex, violence and pornography" and another which claimed an expert who testified on her behalf last Thursday is a Democratic Party donor.
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About the writer
Sean O'Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. ... Read more