E. Jean Carroll allowed to seek more damages against Trump for CNN town hall comments 

A federal judge will allow writer E. Jean Carroll to amend her defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump to seek additional damages for comments he made last month at CNN’s town hall.

Carroll had threatened to sue the former president for a third time over his “vicious” remarks, which repeated statements a federal jury had previously found defamatory.

During the controversial town hall, which aired a day after Carroll was awarded $5 million in damages in a separate lawsuit, Trump called his accuser an “asshole.”

He also mocked her “hanky panky” and “phony” accusations, claiming the judge barred his legal team from introducing evidence that Carroll called her husband a “monkey” and had a cat named “Vagina.”

The judge’s decision to allow Carroll to pursue further damages comes as another legal blow to Trump just days after he became the first former president to be indicted on federal charges in Miami.

Shortly after Trump made the startling remarks about Carroll at City Hall, the writer told the New York Times she considered filing another defamation suit.

“It’s just stupid, it’s just disgusting, mean, nasty, it hurts people,” she said at the time.

Her amended lawsuit is separate from last month’s, in which Carroll accused the former president of raping her in a department store locker room in the 1990s.

A Manhattan jury found Trump liable for sexual assault and libel, but not rape.

Writer E Jean Carroll was awarded $5 million in damages last month. She is pictured outside Manhattan federal court, May 9, 2023

Carroll’s attempt to amend her lawsuit against Trump came as an attempt to incorporate his comments at town hall directly into the case.

Trump’s attorney opposed the amendment and filed a request to dismiss the original lawsuit against him, which also included comments he made at the White House in 2019.

He posted on his social media platform Truth Social that Carroll’s claims were “a hoax and a lie,” adding, “And while I’m not supposed to say it, I will.” This woman is not my type!’

The judge’s decision to allow Carroll to pursue further damages also set a one-month deadline for the Justice Department to decide whether Trump was acting within the scope of his employment when he made the remarks.

A day before the controversial city hall, a jury had ruled in Carroll’s favor in her second civil suit against Trump, awarding her $5 million in damages.

Trump’s attorney, Joseph Tacopina, had previously said he would appeal the verdict, saying the former president would never get a fair trial in New York.

And just hours after U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled in favor of Carroll, Trump’s defense team had already filed its appeal.

Trump’s town hall on CNN was his first public appearance following last month’s ruling in favor of Carroll

City Hall was Trump’s first public appearance since Carroll’s verdict, leading host Kaitlan Collins to press him about the scandal.

“What do you say to voters who say that makes you ineligible to be president?” Collins asked him.

“It wasn’t too many because my numbers just — they went up,” Trump said as the audience cheered and applauded.

The former president reiterated his claim that he did not know Carroll and then repeatedly insulted her before also lashing out at U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who was appointed to the position by President Bill Clinton.

Collins also asked Trump if he would take back comments he made during an Access Hollywood taping where he talked about grabbing women by the p**** and said famous people were allowed to do that sort of thing.

“I said women let you, I didn’t say grab… I said women let you — you know, you didn’t use that word — but when you look, women let you in,” Trump said.

“Now, they said, do you want to take that back? I said, look, this has been going on for a million years. I want to be honest, this is how it has been,” he added.

“You’d like me to take that back. I can’t take it back because it happens to be true,” he noted.