E. Jean Carroll seeks to amend other Trump lawsuit for his reaction to battery verdict

NEW YORK -- Former President Donald Trump's words about E. Jean Carroll may, again, come back to haunt him.

Carroll's attorneys sought Monday to amend her initial defamation lawsuit against Trump, filed in 2019, to account for allegedly defamatory statements he made about her after a jury found Trump liable for battery and defamation in a second lawsuit she filed against him last November.

Carroll's first lawsuit has been tied up on legal technicalities and, in a court filing, her lawyers sought a judge's permission to include Trump's words after the May 9 verdict.

"Immediately after the verdict was announced, Trump began lashing out in response. He started by posting various messages and videos on his Truth Social account decrying the verdict, and disparaging Carroll, the jury, and the judicial system more generally," Carroll's lawyers said.

"Mere minutes after the verdict became public, Trump repeated the defamatory lie that he had no idea who Carroll was and again claimed that her accusation of sexual assault was politically motivated: "I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS. THIS VERDICT IS A DISGRACE - A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!"

There was no immediate response from Trump or his lawyers.

Carroll is seeking additional punitive damages if her first lawsuit ultimately moves forward and is successful.

Earlier this month, Trump signaled his intent to appeal the verdict in Carroll's battery and defamation suit.

A jury in that case ordered him to pay Carroll $5 million in damages.

She said in her battery suit that Trump defamed her in a 2022 Truth Social post by calling her account "a Hoax and a lie" and saying "This woman is not my type!" when he denied raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s.

Trump has been accused of sexual misconduct by about two dozen women and has denied all such claims. Carroll was the first to make it before a jury.

She testified; he declined to do so.

The Associated Press contributed to this story