Former President Donald Trump is tired of the political games. He’s going on the offensive.
Because Trump just stunned everyone with the announcement of this counter lawsuit.
After a civil trial jury awarded E. Jean Carroll $5 million for defamation, former President Donald Trump filed a defamation lawsuit against her on Tuesday, claiming she fraudulently accused him of rape.
After an extraordinary jury found in May that Trump sexually mistreated and denigrated but did not rape Carroll, a former advice writer for Elle magazine, Trump filed a complaint against Carroll in federal court in Manhattan.
Trump is demanding an apology and unspecified monetary damages and penalties.
On Tuesday, Carroll’s attorneys did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
With both sides trading charges and denials in the press, Trump’s lawsuit indicates his multi-front legal struggle with Carroll is unlikely to finish soon.
Carroll requested an additional $10 million in damages from Trump in May, amending the first of her two cases against him to include his repeated denials during a CNN interview the day after the judgement.
Despite the jury’s decision that Trump “just” sexually abused Carroll, Trump’s petition in that same case on Tuesday cites Carroll’s claims on CNN following the judgment, in which she stated Trump raped her.
Trump, who is vying for reelection as president in 2024 and has a large lead over his Republican opponents, has refuted sexually assaulting Carroll. He is contesting the $5 million damage award against him.
According to Carroll’s testimony, Trump assaulted her in a New York City department store in the mid-1990s and then wrecked her reputation by branding her a liar when she went public with her allegations in 2019.
These new documents are part of Carroll’s ongoing defamation lawsuit against Trump, which she first filed in 2019. The case has been stalled by appeals over whether or not Trump has presidential immunity from being sued for his comments.
After New York established a rule allowing survivors of sexual violence to pursue civil actions even if the statute of limitations had passed, Carroll filed a second lawsuit against Trump for defamation and sexual assault.
The counter suit from Donald Trump is noteworthy because it signals that the Trump legal team is ready to go on the offensive.
The attacks on Donald Trump’s character and integrity can only go on so long before he starts to fight back. And that’s what he seems to be doing now.
It will be interesting to see if Trump tries to take a new approach with regards to his other pending legal cases that are, frankly, way more important than this he-said/she-said case that he is in with Carroll.
Donald Trump’s lawyers could try to go on the offensive in his indictment trial over alleged hush payments from the 2016 election by arguing that the Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg is intentionally targeting him.
In the second indictment trial Trump is facing from the federal government over classified documents that were found at Mar-a-Lago that Trump had allegedly illegally kept and mishandled, Donald Trump’s legal team could try to argue that the federal government was unconstitutionally spying on him.
The reason they raided Mar-a-Lago in the first place was due to surveillance data they had on Trump’s home.
Of course, going on the offensive leaves you more vulnerable if you don’t focus enough on a solid defense against the pending charges themselves.
One thing is certain, Trump’s lawyers do not have an envious job at all.
Stay tuned to Prudent Politics.
