Writer E. Jean Carroll exits a Manhattan courthouse after a jury found former President Donald Trump guilty of sexually assaulting her at a Manhattan department store in the 1990s, New York City, May 9, 2023.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
A federal judge on Tuesday granted writer E. Jean Carroll’s request to amend her original defamation lawsuit against former President Donald Trump to include comments he made about her at a CNN town hall last month.
Judge Lewis Kaplan’s decision in the US District Court in Manhattan comes as a blow to Trump, who asked the court to dismiss Carroll’s attempt to update her lawsuit, which now seeks at least $10 million in damages.
The judge’s decision was released shortly after Trump pleaded not guilty during a historic indictment in Miami.
“We look forward to expediently processing E. Jean Carroll’s remaining claims,” Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, who is not related to the judge, said in a statement to CNBC following Tuesday afternoon’s recent order.
Alina Habba, an attorney for Trump, said in a statement to NBC News, “We believe that she should not be allowed to retrospectively change her legal theory at the last minute to avoid the consequences of a ruling against her. “
Carroll tried to change her lawsuit shortly after Trump launched a barrage of derogatory remarks about her during a live circular on CNN on May 10.
“What kind of woman meets someone and brings them up and within minutes you’re playing handkerchief in the locker room, okay?” Trump said at the event. “I swear on my children, which I never do, I have no idea who this woman is. This is a fake story, a fabricated story.”
This much-criticized town hall came a day after a jury in a separate civil trial found Trump guilty of sexual abuse and defamation against Carroll and ordered him to pay $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
The author has accused the former president of raping and then defaming her in a department store in the mid-1990s, after making her allegations in 2019. She filed a civil lawsuit for defamation against him in 2019, and then filed a second civil lawsuit against him in 2022, which also included a battery charge.
Less than two weeks after CNN City Hall, Carroll’s attorneys asked Judge Kaplan to allow her to amend her original civil complaint to include Trump’s recent comments, arguing that “the facts and circumstances have changed.”
Trump has denied raping Carroll. He has appealed the verdict in Carroll’s second case.
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