Former President Donald Trump just made a "highly significant" mistake in the defamation matter relating to columnist E. Jean Carroll, according to lawyer George Conway.
In the last three days, Trump has made several comments about Carroll that Conway argued would give her grounds to bring yet another defamation lawsuit against the former president.
Trump, who has already been found liable for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll, raised eyebrows during a Sunday rally in Georgia after he claimed the lawsuit was a "totally made-up story" politically motivated and funded by "Democratic operatives." Trump renewed his attacks on Carroll Monday when he insisted he had "no idea who she is" during an on-air interview.
"The fact that Trump libeled @ejeancarrollon @CNBC @SquawkCNBC is highly significant for a procedural reason in addition to a substantive one," Conway said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Conway, a vocal Trump critic, said prior to his Monday comments, Carroll would have had to sue Trump in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia if she wanted to bring legal action against his continued attacks.
"But now that he libeled her on Squawk Box, which is anchored in Manhattan, she may now sue in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York," Conway said. "If she does that, the case would be assigned to Judge Lewis A. Kaplan as a case related to the earlier two cases that produced $88.3 million in damages awards."
Trump just posted a $91.6 million bond last week to appeal the verdict Carroll was awarded in January. The former president was forced to secure the bond after Kaplan, who is presiding over the case, denied Trump's request to have the judgment paused while he fights it in the courts.
"I just posted a $91 million bond on a fake story. Totally made up story," Trump said at Sunday's rally. "Based on false accusations made about me by a woman that I knew nothing about, didn't know, never heard of it. I know nothing about her."
Former federal prosecutor and elected state attorney Michael McAuliffe told Newsweek that "Donald Trump's inability to leave a subject or person alone who has bested him is the likely manner of his own self-destruction. That's becoming apparent to everyone except Trump."
Responding to Conway's analysis, legal commentator Joyce Vance called it "bad luck" for Trump, while MSNBC legal correspondant Katie Phang predicted that Carroll would end up suing Trump in both jurisdictions.
During his Monday interview, Trump called the defamation judgment against him a "ridiculous decision" and referred to Carroll as "Miss Bergdorf Goodman," whom he claimed not to know.
"A central reality in the 2024 election is that Trump's impulsivity is far worse than it was, and he is making consequential political mistakes almost daily," Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg also replied to Conway's tweet.
Trump was named the presumptive Republican nominee after he swept Super Tuesday and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley subsequently suspended her own campaign.
The latest RealClearPolling averages show that the former president is currently leading President Joe Biden by 1.8 percentage points.
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Katherine Fung is a Newsweek reporter based in New York City. Her focus is reporting on U.S. and world politics. ... Read more
