Trump's CNN Town Hall Remarks Could Cost Him

Former President Donald Trump's comments during his controversial CNN town hall this month could cost him more money and further legal troubles.

E. Jean Carroll, whom a jury awarded $5 million in damages from Trump, is now seeking an additional amount of at least $10 million in response to his "defamatory" remarks during his May 10 CNN appearance. The primetime event aired just one day after a Manhattan jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll.

The former Elle columnist alleged in the lawsuit that Trump assaulted and raped her in a dressing room at a Bergdorf Goodman department store in the 1990s. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in the case and is appealing the May 9 verdict. Trump has repeatedly said he has "no idea" who Carroll is and called her allegations a "con job." Jurors did not find him liable for rape.

Newsweek has reached out via email to Trump representatives for comment.

The night after the verdict was announced, Trump made his first CNN appearance in years for a town hall hosted by CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins. The event garnered criticism and calls to boycott the news network over the decision not to cancel the broadcast. During the town hall, the former president was asked about the lawsuit and he repeated claims that he had never met Carroll and said her allegations were "fake" and a "made-up story."

While discussing the Carroll verdict, Trump, who is seeking the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election, said that his "poll numbers went up" despite the allegations. He also complained that the judge did not allow his legal team to tell the jury that Carroll's "cat was named Vagina" and referred to the alleged rape as "hanky panky."

"What kind of a woman meets somebody, and brings them up, and within minutes you're playing hanky panky in a dressing room," Trump said during the CNN appearance. He went on to say that he "felt sorry" for Carroll's ex-husband John Johnson.

Carroll is seeking a "very substantial" amount of at least $10 million in the Monday filing, which is an amendment to a separate defamation lawsuit that Carroll filed in 2019 against Trump. That civil lawsuit, which has been pending, stems from comments he made that year after she went public with her allegations that he had raped her in the 1990s.

The updated complaint says Trump's comments "show the depth of his malice toward Carroll, since it is hard to imagine defamatory conduct that could possibly be more motivated by hatred, ill will or spite."

"This conduct supports a very substantial punitive damages award in Carroll's favor both to punish Trump, to deter him from engaging in further defamation, and to deter others from doing the same," the filing states.

The filing also notes that roughly 3.3 million people watched the CNN town hall and heard the audience "applauding and laughing along uproariously to Trump's comments."

Roberta Kaplan, the lawyer who represented Carroll in the civil case against Trump, warned the former president against continuing to defame her client.

Kaplan said she was "stunned" during Trump's CNN appearance after he used "exactly the same language" for which he was found liable.

"He basically repeated the defamation in ways that make it very easy for us to not have to prove a future case on the merits, because we're going to get what's called collateral estoppel or issue preclusion," Kaplan said. "So that wasn't maybe the wisest thing for him to do."