Donald Trump Risks Another Defamation Trial With E. Jean Carroll Attack

Donald Trump’s latest attack on columnist E. Jean Carroll have sparked calls for her to sue him for defamation for a third time.

The former president was ordered to pay Carroll $83.3 million in January for comments he made after she first publicly accused him of raping her in the dressing room of a luxury department store in New York City. That came after a separate jury in May last year awarded Carroll $5 million after finding Trump liable for sexual assault and defamation.

Last month, Trump posted a $92-million bond in connection with defamation cases brought by Carroll to ensure she will receive an award for his attack if it survives appeals.

The presumptive Republican has continued his attacks on Carroll and others involved in several cases against him despite his mounting legal bills. He is facing four criminal cases and also was given a $454-million civil fraud penalty after a New York state judge ruled that he had manipulated his net worth in financial statements for years.

In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, Trump launched a fresh attack on Carrol.

“How many Corrupt, Biased, Crooked [President] Joe Biden-‘Protection Agency’ New York Judges do I have to endure before somebody steps in?” Trump wrote in the post.

“I had New York Federal Judge, Lewis Kaplan, with a woman who I never knew, and had nothing to do with, until she sued me for ‘defamation.’ She did not know what day, month, or year the supposed ‘incident’ took place—She knew nothing.”

Social media users responded to Trump’s remarks by calling on Carroll to sue Trump for a third time.

“If Trump is going to keep defaming E. Jean Carroll, she should just keep suing him until everything that he owns becomes hers,” author Majid M. Padellan wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “EVERYTHING.”

Podcast host Keith Olbermann wrote that “Dementia J. Trump just defamed E. Jean Carroll again.”

And singer-songwriter Ricky Davila wrote that he hopes Carroll sues Trump “every single time he defames her just like he did again today.”

A lawyer for Carroll has previously said that her client may sue Trump for defamation again.

“The statute of limitations for defamation in most jurisdictions is between one and three years,” Roberta Kaplan said last month. “As we said after the last jury verdict, we continue to monitor every statement that Donald Trump makes about our client.”

Kaplan and a lawyer representing Trump have been contacted for comment via email.

Legal experts previously told Newsweek that there is no limit to how many times Carroll can sue Trump for defamation.

Barbara McQuade, a former United States attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, said a jury “has already found that Trump sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll. Every time he denies it, he exposes himself to another claim for defamation.”