Attorney George Conway is reacting to the overnight news Donald Trump is countersuing journalist E. Jean Carroll for defamation, after a jury in a civil trial found the ex-president liable for defaming and sexually abusing her. The jury did not find he committed rape.
Trump is suing Carroll, claiming her post-verdict remarks are defamatory.
“Trump alleges that Carroll defamed him when she appeared on CNN the morning after the jury awarded her $5 million in damages,” CNN reports. “Carroll was asked about the verdict finding Trump sexually abused Carroll but did not rape her as she alleged. Carroll said, ‘Oh, yes he did.'”
E. Jean Carroll’s attorney, the famed Robbie Kaplan, issued a statement criticizing Trump.
“Donald Trump again argues, contrary to both logic and fact, that he was exonerated by a jury that found that he sexually abused E. Jean Carroll,” she said, CNN reported. “Trump’s filing is thus nothing more than his latest effort to delay accountability for what a jury has already found to be his defamation of E. Jean Carroll. But whether he likes it or not, that accountability is coming very soon.”
Legal experts were stunned when the news broke late Tuesday night.
George Conway suggested the countersuit was “frivolous,” and let loose.
“I don’t think it’s possible to convey, in 280 characters or even 280,000 characters, just how stupid this is. Good Lord,” wrote Conway, in response to a tweet reporting the news from MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin.
Rubin, apparently dumbfounded by the countersuit, added: “No, really. That is, in fact, his argument. That she has caused him ‘inordinate’ damages and ‘significant harm to his reputation’ by reiterating that he raped her when the jury did not so unanimously find.”
According to the filing Rubin posted, Trump, through his attorney Alina Habba, is asking the court to rescind the $5 million in damages the jury awarded him when it found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation. He is also asking the court to deny Carroll the additional damages she is asking the judge to award her after Trump, she says, defamed her again after the jury awarded her the $5 million.
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Trump is also asking the court to order Carroll to retract her “defamatory statements” against him, award him damages, pay his legal fees and court costs, and award him “any further relief” the court deems “just and proper.”
Rubin says, if the judge doesn’t toss out Trump’s lawsuit, she “cannot wait” to see if Carroll’s attorney, Robbie Kaplan, asks the court to sanction Trump’s attorney.
“Should he survive a motion to dismiss, what purported expert would endorse this theory and quantify his alleged damages? (I also cannot wait to see whether and/or at what point Carroll’s team moves for sanctions under Rule 11 and/or 28 USC 1927.)”
Conway agreed Habba might be sanctioned, asking: “Over/under on how long it takes Judge Kaplan to impose Rule 11 sanctions for this?”
Apparently still dumbfounded, Conway concluded, “This just has to be a simulation. I’m now convinced. And I think the simulation is now jumping the shark.”