Trump sues E Jean Carroll for defamation after being found liable for defaming writer

Former President Donald Trump filed a counterlawsuit against author E. Jean Carroll on defamation charges for accusing the former president of raping her.

Trump's lawyers filed the countersuit in the fight in which Carroll is accusing him of defaming her by denying her claims that he had raped her in a New York department store in the 1990s.

Trump's lawyers argue that Carroll defamed the former president by claiming that Trump raped her after a jury in a civil trial in May found that he was not liable for the rape claims. The jury did find him liable for sexual abuse and defamation in the other trial, awarding Carroll roughly $5 million in damages.

The evidence presented to make the defamation claims include various tweets by Carroll from 2020 to 2022, along with comments she made on CNN in May following the other trial's verdict in which she claimed Trump did rape her.

"Due to [Carroll]’s repeated falsehoods and defamatory statements made against [Trump], [Trump] has been the subject of significant harm to his reputation, which, in turn, has yielded an inordinate amount of damages sustained as a result," the filing said.

Trump is seeking "compensatory and punitive damages" and that Carroll retract her statements about the former president as relief for the counterclaim.