Advice columnist E. Jean Carroll allegedly won another round in her litigation battle against former President Donald Trump, according to a report on Above The Law. The court has reportedly granted partial summary judgment in her second defamation case against Trump. This lawsuit was in relation to controversial statements that Trump made, frequently echoing his initial accusations from 2019, in which he discredited Carroll’s sexual assault allegations against him.
In response to Carroll’s accusations in 2019, the former president reportedly lambasted her as a liar aiming to sell her book and politically damage him through a Democratic scheme. Carroll, in turn, filed a lawsuit in the New York state court the same year, although the proceedings languished for several years due to various obstacles along its legal journey.
However, due to the court deeming Trump’s comments about Carroll being false, her second lawsuit initiated in 2022, under New York’s Adult Survivors Act – alleging sexual battery and defamation – seems to have been allowed to proceed with far less legal interference. Furthermore, it was reported that a jury in May 2023, awarded Carroll damages amounting to 2 million USD for battery and 3 million USD for the October 2022 defamation, although Trump vowed to appeal this decision.
In an attempt to reduce her damages in an upcoming trial, Trump’s legal team submitted arguments suggesting Carroll’s potential damages should be reduced by 1.7 million USD, a claim that was eventually dismissed by Judge Kaplan. The court has now determined that the jury’s findings from Carroll’s initial trial will stand as the law of the case. As a consequence, the sole task for the jury in this new trial is determining the amount of damages Trump will have to pay.
The Carroll v. Trump I and Carroll v. Trump II cases reveal the intricate back-and-forth litigation drama that continues between the former president and the columnist.