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E Jean Carroll could sue Donald Trump for a third time for defamation, based on a recent press conference and his social media posts, a law professor has said.
"Carroll can decide to sue a third time. She can seek punitive damages high enough to deter future such statements. She can do this even if her compensatory damages in a third suit would be modest or nominal," said professor Stephen Gillers, a law lecturer at New York University.
Carroll's attorney has alerted a court to Trump's allegedly defaming comments at a press conference held on January 17.
In her filing, Carroll's lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, wrote that Trump claimed to reporters that Carroll had invented her claims of sexual assault. Kaplan has already obtained a transcript of the press conference.
Trump backed up the press conference claims with 30 posts about Carroll on the social media site Truth Social—again opening himself up to the possibility of a third defamation trial.
A court has twice found that Trump had defamed Carroll. In the first case in May, 2023, a jury awarded Carroll $5 million for sexual assault and defamation.
In the latest case, a judge ruled in September that Trump had also defamed Carroll in 2019 when he claimed she was inventing 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 a filing to the court, Kaplan has opened up the possibility of a third defamation case.
In her submission, filed on Saturday, she 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.
Kaplan 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, January 17, in which he again attacked Carroll's credibility.
The majority of Trump's January 17 Truth Social 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."
Newsweek sought email comment from Trump's attorney on Monday.
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.
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