Former President Donald Trump has filed a counterclaim against author E. Jean Carroll, accusing her of defamation and making “false statements” after she alleged he raped her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in the mid-1990s.
Trump’s counterclaim comes just a month after he was ordered to pay $5 million in damages when a jury found him liable for battery and defamation charges in his legal battle with Carroll.
The jury found that Trump did not rape Carroll, something the former president has himself repeatedly denied.
Filed with the Southern District of New York federal court on June 27, Trump’s counterclaim (pdf) states that Carroll damaged his reputation by accusing him of raping her during an appearance on CNN on May 10, one day after a nine-member jury found that Carroll did not prove that Trump raped her but instead found that the businessman and 2024 presidential candidate sexually abused her….