Former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal on Sunday suggested Donald Trump may have crossed the line once again with his latest verbal attack on E. Jean Carroll — and warned that the former president may now face a third defamation lawsuit from the writer.
Trump, during a campaign rally in Rome, Georgia, on Saturday, railed against having to post a nearly $92 million bond in his appeal of the $83.3 million in damages he was ordered to pay in January for defaming the columnist.
It followed Trump last year being ordered to pay Carroll $5 million after a jury believed her accusation that Trump raped her in the 1990s, finding him liable for sexual assault and also liable for defamation when he denied Carroll’s claims and attacked her character.
“Ninety-one million based on false accusations made about me by a woman that I knew nothing about,” Trump raged, among other derogatory comments over the weekend.
MSNBC anchor Jen Psaki asked Katyal if Trump had defamed Carroll again.
“It sure sounds like it,” Katyal replied.
“And, Jen, there are many days that I wish I was Roberta Kaplan, who is Jean Carroll’s extraordinary lawyer. She’s just so phenomenal as a lawyer. But, boy, today is the day I wish I was, because Donald Trump is basically just writing the third lawsuit that she’s going to file right now,” he added.
Katyal, who was acting solicitor general in the Obama administration, said Carroll would be “absolutely within her rights” to bring a third lawsuit against Trump.
“Remember, Trump lost in front of a jury of his peers on this question of whether he had defamed Jean Carroll, and now he is doing it again. And I’m sure she’s just sitting there scribbling it all down and ready to go.”
Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann agreed with Katyal’s assessment, saying there could well be grounds for more legal action against the four-times-indicted ex-president.
Weissmann said Carroll could also seek an injunction against Trump.
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