NEW YORK — A Manhattan judge on Monday dismissed Donald Trump’s counterclaim against E. Jean Carroll, alleging she defamed him as a rapist after a jury found him liable for sexual abuse.
The decision by Judge Lewis Kaplan found that the difference between Carroll’s allegedly defamatory remarks — that Trump “raped” her as defined under New York law — and the jury’s finding that he forcibly digitally penetrated her was “minimal.”
“The difference between Ms. Carroll’s allegedly defamatory statements — that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as defined in the New York Penal Law — and the ‘truth’ — that Mr. Trump forcibly digitally penetrated Ms. Carroll — is minimal. Both are felonious sex crimes,” Kaplan wrote.
“If Ms. Carroll had stated that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her by forcibly digitally penetrating her vagina instead of referring also (allegedly) to forcible penile penetration, there would have been no different effect on the mind of an average listener.”
A jury on May 9 found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in a Midtown changing room in the mid-1990s and defaming her last year as a liar on Truth Social. Trump filed a defamation counterclaim against Carroll in June for continuing to use the term “rape” after the verdict.
Jurors had multiple avenues of finding Trump liable for the battery claim — with options to choose rape, sexual abuse, and other offenses — ultimately finding her lawyers didn’t provide enough evidence to show he penetrated her with his penis. They believed the evidence showed he did sexually abuse her.
In another blow, Kaplan struck down Trump’s presidential immunity defense in Carroll’s outstanding 2019 lawsuit, which the judge previously said was insufficient and that Trump hadn’t raised it in time.
Carroll’s first suit — which alleges Trump defamed her while in office — was stalled for years as he and the Justice Department argued that he couldn’t be sued for anything he said while president. The DOJ recently backed down from that argument. Had it succeeded, it would have taken Trump’s place in the case.
The judge said Trump bringing it up again in amended papers made no difference.
“There is nothing new in the amended complaint that would make Mr. Trump’s presidential immunity defense any more viable or persuasive now than it would have been before,” Kaplan wrote.
“The opportunity to answer an amended complaint is not a free pass to correct past wrongs without any justification or basis for doing so.”
Trump’s lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“E Jean Carroll looks forward to receiving the $5 million in damages that the jury awarded her in Carroll II,” Carroll’s lawyer Robbie Kaplan said.
“She also looks forward to continuing to hold Trump accountable for what he did to her at the trial in Carroll I, which is scheduled to begin on Jan. 15, 2024.”
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