E. Jean Carroll may sue Trump over 'foul' CNN remarks

E. Jean Carroll
(Image credit: Ed Jones / AFP via Getty Images)

E. Jean Carroll is considering filing a third defamation lawsuit against former President Donald Trump, after he called her allegation of sexual assault "fake" and a "made-up story" during a CNN town hall on Wednesday, her lawyer told The New York Times on Thursday.

On Tuesday, a federal jury in Manhattan found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll, a former Elle columnist, in the 1990s and defaming her when he wrote on his Truth Social platform that her case was "a complete con job" and "a Hoax and a lie." The jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages. Carroll has another defamation suit against Trump now pending, based on comments he made about her while still president.

Speaking to the Times on Thursday, Carroll said she was asleep during the town hall, and read a transcript of Trump's remarks sent by her lawyer. "It's just stupid, it's just disgusting, vile, foul, it wounds people," Carroll said, adding that she's been "insulted by better people." Carrol also revealed her stylist's teenage son was talking about Trump's comments, and that made her "upset on the behalf of young men in America. They cannot listen to this balderdash and this old-timey view of women, which is a caveman view."

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Carroll's lawyer, Roberta A. Kaplan, told the Times that when it comes to filing a lawsuit against Trump for his CNN remarks, "everything's on the table, obviously, and we have to give serious consideration to it. We have to weigh the various pros and cons and we'll come to a decision in the next day or so, probably."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.