US District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan recently dismissed former President Donald Trump’s counter-defamation suit against author E. Jean Carroll. Carroll publicly accused Trump of sexual assault, with a jury finding that Trump had sexually assaulted and defamed Carroll by accusing her of lying.
In response to these charges, Trump had claimed that Carroll’s statements on CNN after the verdict were false and defamatory. However, Judge Kaplan disagreed, dismissing the suit and declaring both that Trump failed to plausibly allege Carroll’s statements were untrue, and that her statements were substantially true as a matter of law.
Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, expressed satisfaction at the court’s decision: “We are pleased that the Court dismissed Donald Trump’s counterclaim.” In contrast, Trump’s attorney Alina Habba criticized the decision, stating her intent to file an appeal shortly.
Interestingly, the defamation lawsuit recently adjudicated, known as Carroll II, was actually a derivative of an original defamation lawsuit filed by Carroll in 2019, referred to as Carroll I. This original defamation is still ongoing, with a jury trial scheduled for January 2024. According to Kaplan, the coming jury trial will be limited to a narrow set of issues and should not take long to complete.
In addition to Carroll, at least 26 women have accused Trump of sexual assault, with accusations spanning several decades back to the 1970s. Among the accusers are prominent individuals like Jessica Leads, Kristin Anderson, Jill Harth, Temple Taggart, Natasha Stoynoff and Summer Zervos, among others.
Beyond this defamation case, Trump faces troubling legal challenges as he embarks on a 2024 run for president. These include potential federal criminal charges relating to the January 6th Capitol Riot and the post-2020-election fraud allegations, as well as charges in Florida associated with storage and retention of classified documents.