THE columnist who won a sexual abuse and defamation case against former US president Donald Trump has filed a fresh lawsuit over comments he made on TV a day after the verdict was announced.
E Jean Carroll, 79, was awarded 5 million dollars (£4.02 million) on May 10 and is seeking at least a further 10 million dollars (£8.04 million) for comments made by Mr Trump at a CNN town hall meeting.
Her lawyers, who filed the amended lawsuit in Manhattan, said the former president had “doubled down” on derogatory remarks about the former Elle magazine columnist.
“It is hard to imagine defamatory conduct that could possibly be more motivated by hatred, ill will, or spite,” they wrote of his remarks on CNN. “This conduct supports a very substantial punitive damages award in Carroll’s favor both to punish Trump, to deter him from engaging in further defamation, and to deter others from doing the same.”
A nine-person jury in the civil suit decided Trump had sexually abused Ms Carroll – but not raped her – at an upscale Manhattan department store in early spring 1996.
It also found that Trump had made false statements that damaged her reputation after she went public with her allegations in a 2019 book.
