New York: A federal judge said on Wednesday that author E. Jean Carroll’s second lawsuit against Donald Trump, stemming from her claim that Trump sexually assaulted her, will be limited to defamation only, which is a setback for the former U.S. president.
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In Manhattan, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan said that Trump had defamed Carroll by denying in June 2019 that he had raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan in the 1990s and by claiming she had fabricated the assault allegation to boost her sales. Memory.
Kaplan also noted that in a separate civil case, a May 2022 ruling ordered Trump to pay Carroll $5 million for sexual misconduct, and the similar defamation claim filed in October 2022 has already addressed the need to reexamine what Trump did to tarnish Carroll’s reputation.
The judge wrote, “The jury considered and made findings on issues common to both cases,” and its decisions and undisputed facts “establish that Mr. Trump’s statements in 2019 were made with actual malice.”
Kaplan also dismissed Trump’s claim that any damages awarded to Carroll, who is seeking $10 million, should be reduced because some of them were covered by prior rulings and she was not entitled to double recovery.
The 79-year-old Carroll argued that Trump’s initial defamation caused her greater harm compared to her second defamation, which also included damage to her reputation.
Trump’s lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said she is awaiting the scheduled trial date of January 15, 2024. She and the judge are unrelated to each other.