Former President Donald Trump and writer E. Jean Carroll have been in a legal battle since November 2019, when Carroll filed a defamation lawsuit against Trump following his public denials of her sexual assault allegations.
Trump then appealed the 2023 civil jury verdict that found him liable for sexually abusing Carroll decades ago in a department store and defaming her in 2022 by calling her allegations a “con job.” In a separate case, a jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million in January for Trump’s defamatory statements made in 2019, a verdict he also appealed.
The legal battle continued as Trump’s lawyer, John Sauer, urged an appeals court to overturn the decision requiring Trump to pay $5 million to Carroll. Trump, 78, maintained he never assaulted Carroll, 80.
On Sept. 6, Trump appeared in a New York City courtroom for the proceedings, his first appearance after missing the trial and later blaming his lawyers for the loss.
Learn more about the ongoing Trump-Carroll legal battle, including a detailed timeline, here.
Timeline
1990s
- Around 1996: Carroll, a former advice columnist for Elle magazine, alleges that Trump sexually assaulted her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York City.
2019
- June 21, 2019: Carroll publicly accuses Trump of sexual assault in her book What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal, published in New York Magazine. Trump denies the allegations, stating he had never met Carroll and that she was “not his type.”
- November 4, 2019: Carroll files a defamation lawsuit against Trump in New York state court, claiming his statements denying her allegations damaged her reputation.
2020
- September 8, 2020: The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) intervenes in the defamation case, arguing that Trump was acting in his official capacity as President when he made the statements about Carroll. (The move, if successful, would have shifted the case to federal court and potentially resulted in its dismissal.)
2021
- October 27, 2021: The New York State Court of Appeals rules that Carroll’s lawsuit can proceed, rejecting the DOJ’s argument. However, the DOJ continues to defend its position in federal court.
2022
- February 15, 2022: The Second Circuit Court of Appeals hears arguments on whether the DOJ’s intervention is valid, focusing on whether Trump’s statements were made in the scope of his official duties.
- May 19, 2022: Carroll’s attorney states that Carroll intends to file a separate lawsuit against Trump under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which provides a one-year window for survivors of sexual assault to sue even if the statute of limitations has expired.
- November 24, 2022: Carroll files a new lawsuit against Trump under the Adult Survivors Act, accusing him of committing battery by “forcibly raping and groping her” and of defaming her when he denied raping her the previous month. Kaplan said at a court hearing that her client “intends to hold Donald Trump accountable not only for defaming her but also for sexually assaulting her, which he did years ago in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman.”
2023
- April 25, 2023: A federal judge rules that the defamation suit can proceed, and sets a trial date for April 2024 for the battery and defamation case filed in 2022.
- May 9, 2023: A jury in Manhattan finds Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll, awarding her $5 million in damages. Trump immediately announces plans to appeal the decision.
- July 19, 2023: Trump countersues Carroll for defamation, arguing that her statements during interviews after the verdict caused him additional reputational harm.
- August 7, 2023: Carroll seeks an additional $10 million in damages from Trump, citing further defamatory comments he made on social media.
2024
- April 2024: The scheduled trial for Carroll’s second defamation lawsuit against Trump, barring any delays or settlements.
- September 6, 2024:A federal judge in New York dismisses Trump’s countersuit against Carroll, stating that his claims did not meet the legal standards for defamation and, therefore, could not proceed.