In their first televised interview since winning their lawsuit against Donald Trump, E. Jean Carroll and her attorney, Robbie Kaplan, appeared on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” to talk about that case. But of course Maddow raised a related matter: CNN’s ill-advised, badly received Trump town hall.
At one point, Maddow asked Kaplan and Carroll a question that critics of the town hall have asked since it aired — did Trump re-prosecute disparaging comments he made about Carroll during the event? According to Kaplan, “Absolutely.”
You’ll remember that Trump repeatedly maligned Carroll during the town hall. And sure enough, he did it the day after the jury in Carroll’s trial found him liable for sexual assault. defamation,
During the interview, Medado first listed the things Trump had said about Carroll on the subject that made him liable in his lawsuit. “Then he did it again,” she continued. “Defamation. Calling you a liar. The exact same things that the jury held him responsible for the day before, he did again on national television the next day. Is that what it has to be? Do you think if you’re a And file a lawsuit, potentially actionable? Would it work the same way?”
“So it’s definitely actionable,” Kaplan replied. “And here cruelty will make him less rich. He’s not going to get away with it a second time. It’s unprecedented for someone to be held liable in defamation for continuing to defame it, so there aren’t many cases we can look to for a playbook on how to do it.
“But, suffice to say, I have a lot of lawyers who are very busy looking into this, and we’re weighing all of our options,” Kaplan said. Watch that clip above now.
Later in the episode, Maddow also brought up the other defamation case Kaplan and Carroll are running against Trump. Kaplan said they would make an announcement “very, very soon”, and when pressed, said “two to three days, max.” so stay tuned.
