'Splitting hairs': Ex-prosecutor says 'very little leeway' for Trump to claim E. Jean Carroll defamed him
June 28, 2023
Faced with a legal defeat in the civil suit by writer E. Jean Carroll finding him liable for sexual abuse and defamation, former President Donald Trump is now countersuing Carroll, claiming that her own characterization of his assault as "rape" is also defamatory since the jury only declared it to be sexual abuse.
That argument is baseless, former federal prosecutor and Cardozo School of Law professor Jessica Roth said on CNN Wednesday.
"Given the jury already found in favor of Miss Carroll, how much standing do you think the former president has to bring this suit?" asked anchor Anderson Cooper.
"He's asserted this is a counterclaim to the amended complaint," said Roth. "She added new claims, alleging he further defamed her when he participated in the town hall and other forums, continued to deny he sexually assaulted her and assailed her character. When she filed that amended complaint, he had to file an answer to those new allegations. And it gave an opportunity to assert counterclaims, and that's what he did."
"Given that a jury credited her testimony that he sexually assaulted her in that dressing room, there's very little leeway for him to argue that she said something false about that attack," Roth continued. "So, what the counterclaim asserts is it's trying to split hairs between what the jury found he did affirmatively, that he sexually assaulted her and penetrated her essentially with his fingers, not his genitals, and her continuing to assert after the verdict that he had raped her. That's the very fine needle that his lawyers are asserting is the basis for this counterclaim of defamation."
"I don't see it having any merit," added Roth. "I don't see the judge is going to have much patience for it at all. But this may be an attempt to muddy the issues, perhaps delay the trial, appeal to a political base, and perhaps just sort of confuse the issues whether and if these new allegations actually go to trial."
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