OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Donald Trump could face another lawsuit—his third—from columnist E. Jean Carroll over a post he made to his Truth Social account during the Memorial Day observance.
“Happy Memorial Day to All, including the Human Scum that is working so hard to destroy our Once Great Country, & to the Radical Left, Trump Hating Federal Judge in New York that presided over, get this, TWO separate trials, that awarded a woman, who I never met before (a quick handshake at a celebrity event, 25 years ago, doesn’t count!), 91 MILLION DOLLARS for ‘DEFAMATION,'” Trump wrote on Monday.
“She didn’t know when the so-called event took place – sometime in the 1990’s – never filed a police report, didn’t have to produce the ‘dress’ that she threatened me with (it showed negative!), & sung my praises in the first half of her CNN Interview with Alison Cooper, but changed her tune in the second half – Gee, I wonder why (UNDER APPEAL!)? The Rape charge was dropped by a jury! Or Arthur Engoron, the N.Y. State Wacko Judge who fined me almost 500 Million Dollars (UNDER APPEAL) for DOING NOTHING WRONG, used a Statute that has never been used before, gave me NO JURY, Mar-a-Lago at $18,000,000 – Now for Merchan!” he added.
Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, confirmed to Newsweek that her client was considering yet another lawsuit.
“We have said several times since the last jury verdict in January that all options were on the table. And that remains true today. All options are on the table,” Kaplan said in a statement.
Her client, a former columnist for Elle magazine, has already won a pair of lawsuits against Trump.
In January, a federal jury ordered Trump to pay damages to Carroll for allegedly destroying her reputation as a trustworthy journalist after she accused him in 2019 of raping her nearly three decades ago. Trump in March posted a $91.63 million bond in the case, Newsmax reported.
In May 2023, Trump was ordered to pay Carroll $5 million in damages after he was found liable for sexually abusing her. Trump has filed appeals in both cases.
Trump lawyer Alina Habba tore into Carroll in April, calling her “crazy” and promising she would get “ZERO” from an $83 million defamation award.
During an interview on the Patrick Bet-David-hosted “PBD Podcast,” Habba vowed to sue Carroll for Trump’s legal fees.
Below is a brief transcript of the exchange:
PATRICK BET-DAVID: How much of the 83 million is she going to see?
ALINA HABBA: Zero! Zero. And then I’m going to sue for attorney’s fees.
PATRICK BET-DAVID: Oh, I can’t wait for that.
ALINA HABBA: Oh, yeah!
PATRICK BET-DAVID: So she can’t go shopping. You mean she can’t buy —
ALINA HABBA: (sing-song) She can’t buy her friends — oh, I watched that. I said I said, Reid Hoffman, I hope you’re watching. DNC. I hope you’re watching. This is the person. This is the person you picked? She. Look, I couldn’t talk about her cat’s name. I couldn’t talk about that.
Habba claimed that if Carroll had talked about her cat’s name and Trump’s assault, it would have been proof of her insanity, not Trump’s defamation.
Habba made similar remarks earlier that month, cautioning Carroll against making any big purchases of motorcycles or penthouse apartments after projecting that Trump would prevail in the defamation case.
During an interview on Newsmax with host Eric Bolling, Alina Habba attacked Carroll for offering to purchase MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow a penthouse apartment and new clothes following a jury’s decision to order Trump to pay Carroll $83.3 million for defamation. Habba also predicted that Carroll would continue legal actions against her client.
“It was like being in an epic Twilight Zone where no rules were allowed but for the other side, and then she goes out there and gloats and says she’s gonna buy France, and a wardrobe, and a motorcycle, and this and that. I want everyone to remember, and I said this in my closing argument to the jury, she’s here to get a check and after this she will continue. She didn’t care, you know, about the defamation. She didn’t. She cared about the publicity,” Habba said.
“On appeal, those rulings will come up, the one-sidedness will come up, and we will prevail,” predicted Habba, before concluding, “My advice to her would be not to go ahead and purchase any motorcycles or penthouse apartments.”