Trump ‘unleashed’ followers on E. Jean Carroll — with some urging her to be raped, killed: lawyer

Then President Donald Trump “unleashed his followers’’ on E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of sex abuse — including some who said she should be raped and killed, her lawyer contended Tuesday . “How much money will it take to make him stop? Because he has not stopped,” Carroll’s lawyer, Shawn Crowley, told a Manhattan federal jury in opening statements at Trump’s second defamation trial involving the plaintiff.

The former president, 77, was already ordered at a previous trial to pay $5 million to the “Ask E. Jean” advice columnist after the jurors found him liable of sexually abusing her in a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room in 1996 and then defaming her after she went public about the alleged attack in 2019.

This latest defamation case involves similar comments Trump made against Carroll in 2022. A judge already ruled that Trump defamed Carroll in 2022. This case is just about how much he should pay her for it. Her camp is seeking more than $10 million. “He was president,” Crowley said of comments Trump made allegedly egging on his loyalists against Carroll.

“And when he spoke, the world listened. “He had the biggest microphone on the planet. And the next week, he used it to tear her reputation to shreds, to defame her,” the lawyer alleged. Crowley said the real estate tycoon — who is running again for president — did this in a series of “vicious attacks” against Carroll beginning June 22, 2019, when he denied ever meeting the now 80 year old and verbally assaulted her.

“He said he had no idea who she was,” Crowley said. “He accused her of lying and making up a story to make money … and threatened her. He said she should pay dearly for speaking out against her.” Trump “unleashed his followers to go after her online, to attack her character, to threaten her life,” the lawyer said.

After Trump’s public statements in speeches and online, Carroll received messages calling her “ugly,” saying she should be jailed and raped, and others “threatening that she should die all because she had the courage to speak out about what Donald Trump had done to her,” Crowley said. This ruined Carroll’s journalistic reputation and caused her to live in fear — even to this day, the lawyer said.

“She’s afraid – afraid that someday someone will make good on their threats,” Crowley. The lawyer said her client is asking for the jury to award her a “very significant” amount of money because of the fallout to Carroll’s life over the past four years. Trump was not in court while Crowley delivered the impassioned statements to the nine person jury — which included a doctor, publicist and banker — though the former commander in chief was in the lower Manhattan courtroom during jury selection earlier in the day.

“He sat in this court house this morning. And while he was sitting there, he posted more defamatory statements, more lies … 22 posts just today,” Crowley pointed out. “Think about that, think about that when you consider how much money it will take to get him to stop.” Just before and during Trump’s time sitting in the courtroom in the morning he posted a series of messages on Truth Social about Carroll — including one saying: “Can you believe I have to defend myself against this woman’s fake story?!” The trial is expected to last for a week, and jurors are slated to hear the infamous recording of Trump once bragging to then “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush that women let him grope them because he’s a “star.

“ Trump lawyer Alina Habba has told the judge their camp would be calling two witnesses: Trump and Carol Martin — the woman in whom Carroll confided shortly after she was allegedly attacked by Trump. If the 45th president does take the witness stand, he will be on a short leash about what he is allowed to say and will not be allowed to claim he didn’t know Carroll or that he didn’t sexually assault her, since a jury already found him liable in the prior case, the judge has said..