E. Jean Carroll’s battle with Donald Trump isn’t done.
The columnist filed a request within a Manhattan court on Monday, asking a judge to increase a $5 million judgment against the former president by a “very substantial” amount in light of his continued harassment of Carroll, who had accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in Manhattan in the mid-1990s.
Trump disparaged Carroll during a CNN town hall that took place just one day after a jury in her civil case decided that the 2024 Republican presidential candidate was liable for sexually abusing and defaming the writer.
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Monday’s filing is attached to a 2019 defamation suit Carroll filed against Trump that is still pending.
During the May 10 live event, Trump again denied any wrongdoing, calling Carroll’s account “fake” and a “made-up story.”
Carroll’s filing argues that Trump’s continued attacks “show the depth of his malice toward Carroll, since it is hard to imagine defamatory conduct that could possibly be more motivated by hatred, ill will or spite.”
The filing continues, “This conduct supports a very substantial punitive damages award in Carroll’s favor both to punish Trump, to deter him from engaging in further defamation, and to deter others from doing the same.”
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On Monday, Carroll’s lawyer Roberta A. Kaplan underscored the importance of continuing to hold Trump accountable.
“It makes a mockery of the jury verdict and our justice system if he can just keep on repeating the same defamatory statements over and over again,” Kaplan said.
Carroll first told the Times about the possibility of suing Trump for a third time in an interview days after the judgment and the CNN town hall, which was packed with his supporters. “It’s just stupid; it’s just disgusting, vile, foul,” she said. “It wounds people.”
CORRECTION: A prior version of this article incorrectly referred to the judgment as a settlement.
