Former President Trump is countersuing E. Jean Carroll for defamation, filing a lawsuit asserting that she “falsely” accused him of rape following a federal jury in New York City finding that he was not liable for raping the leftist author.

(Video Credit: Reuters)

Trump was found guilty of sexual abuse and defamation. He was ordered to pay $5 million in reparations but has vowed to appeal the ruling.

He claimed she made the statements “with actual malice and ill will with an intent to significantly and spitefully harm and attack” his reputation, the former president’s suit alleges.

His legal team charged that E. Jean Carroll “wantonly and falsely” accused Trump on “multiple occasions of committing rape,” asserting those claims “constitute defamation.”

Alina Habba and Michael Madaio, who are Trump’s attorneys, filed the lawsuit this week contending rape “clearly was not committed,” referencing the jury’s verdict in May.

Just In: Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against E Jean Carroll for Defamation after she claimed on CNN after the trial that he raped her even though the Jury in the civil trial did not find evidence of Rape.

He is seeking a public retraction from her and unspecified punitive… pic.twitter.com/KLxBibOA4d

— Travis (@Travis_in_Flint) June 28, 2023

The lawyers stated that Carroll’s “repeated falsehoods and defamatory statements” have brought “significant harm” to Trump’s reputation, which has “yielded an inordinate amount of damages sustained as a result.”

Trump’s legal team is demanding that the author “retract her defamatory statements” against the former president, be denied all relief and purported damages, and that the court award Trump “compensatory and punitive damages.”

They also want the former president to be awarded “counsel fees, costs, and any further relief as this Court may deem just and proper.”

Carroll allegedly defamed Trump when she appeared on CNN the morning after the jury awarded her damages. Carroll was asked about the verdict finding Trump sexually abused her but did not rape the author as she alleged. Carroll said, “Oh, yes he did.”

Donald Trump is countersuing E. Jean Carroll, claiming she defamed him when she appeared on CNN — the morning after a civil jury found that Trump sexually abused Carroll — and repeated her assertion that Trump had raped her. pic.twitter.com/Xn14cBpmEG

— The Recount (@therecount) June 28, 2023

Responding to Trump’s defamation claim, Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan said in a statement, “Donald Trump again argues, contrary to both logic and fact, that he was exonerated by a jury that found that he sexually abused E. Jean Carroll by forcibly inserting his fingers into her vagina. Four out of the five statements in Trump’s so-called counterclaim were made outside of New York’s one-year statute of limitations. The other statement similarly will not withstand a motion to dismiss.”

“Trump’s filing is thus nothing more than his latest effort to delay accountability for what a jury has already found to be his defamation of E. Jean Carroll. But whether he likes it or not, that accountability is coming very soon,” she added.

NEW: Trump has counterclaimed against @ejeancarroll for…Defamation.https://t.co/eGb6gf2awN

— Katie Phang (@KatiePhang) June 28, 2023

According to Fox News, “Carroll, 79, alleged that Trump raped her at the Bergdorf Goodman department store across the street from Trump Tower in Manhattan sometime in 1996. According to Carroll, the two had a chance run-in at the store, where Trump was shopping for a gift for ‘a girl.’ She said he asked for her advice, and the two shopped together before he pushed her into a dressing room and assaulted her. Trump and his legal team insist that Carroll’s allegations are fabricated, with the former president’s initial reaction including an accusation that Carroll was motivated by wanting to sell copies of her book.”

Trump told Fox News Digital in a May interview following the jury’s verdict that he has “absolutely no idea who this woman is.”

“This verdict is a disgrace,” he railed. “It is a continuation of the greatest political witch hunt in history.”

Carroll has a second defamation suit filed against Trump. It is set to go to trial early in 2024.

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