Donald Trump's Defense Against E. Jean Carroll Is Unraveling

Lawyers for E. Jean Carroll are seeking to block Donald Trump from introducing a new expert in her $10 million defamation case against him.

Carroll's lawyers claim in legal submissions that Trump, who was found guilty earlier this year of sexually assaulting and defaming the former Elle columnist, is looking for "a second bite at the apple" by introducing a new defamation expert.

Last month, New York federal Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected Trump's proposed expert, Dr. Robert Fisher, after finding that Fisher didn't do adequate research and had submitted a report with "sundry" topics, "none of which is a proper subject of expert testimony."

In 2019, Carroll first publicly stated that Trump attacked her in the dressing room of a luxury Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s. In May, a jury awarded her $5 million in damages, concluding she was sexually assaulted and defamed by Trump but rejecting the allegation that she was raped.

Carroll's lawyers now seek another $10 million in compensatory damages and "substantially more" in punitive damages for remarks he made about her while president and after the jury's verdict, including saying that she wasn't his "type."

On October 5, Kaplan granted Carroll's request to preclude Fisher, Trump's proposed expert witness intended to rebut Carroll's defamation expert, Ashlee Humphreys.

In a court submission this week, Carroll's attorney, Shawn Crowley, urged the court to reject any new defamation expert put forward by Trump as there is so little time before the second defamation trial begins.

"Trump essentially requests a re-do, asking the Court to allow him to offer an entirely new expert now, only two months before trial," Crowley wrote.

Crowley added that Trump's request to introduce a new expert is "either an improper motion to disclose a new expert after the close of discovery (for which he has no good cause) or a baseless motion for reconsideration of this Court's October 5, 2023, order precluding Trump's expert."

Either way, the court should deny Trump's application, Crowley wrote. She also challenged the Trump legal team's claim in legal submissions that they want to "substitute" Fisher for another expert.

"There is no expert left to 'substitute' — the Court excluded Mr. Fisher's testimony in its entirety. Trump is essentially asking the Court to allow him to reopen discovery and disclose an entirely new expert two months before trial and nearly a year after expert discovery closed," Crowley wrote.

She also submitted that Carroll "is now in the midst of preparing for trial. Carroll should not be forced to engage in additional expert discovery now merely because Trump wants a second bite at the apple."

She added: "Trump is facing trial without a defamation damages expert for one reason and one reason only: he failed to retain a qualified expert in the first place."

In June, Kaplan ruled that Carroll can pursue her $10 million defamation case against Trump, who is currently the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential race.

Both of Carroll's defamation lawsuits arose from Trump's denials that he had raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan in the mid-1990s.

On May 9, 2023, a Manhattan jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $2 million for battery and $3 million for defamation.

Carroll then sought a new defamation lawsuit after Trump told a White House reporter that the rape never happened and that Carroll was not his "type." This case also mentions Trump calling Carroll's account "fake" and labeling her a "whack job" during a CNN town hall broadcast.

Correction 10/10/23, 2:56 p.m. ET: This article was updated to refer to Shawn Crowley as "she" and not "he."