When exactly did E. Jean Carroll file lawsuits against Donald Trump and what claims did each suit allege?
Executive summary
E. Jean Carroll first sued Donald J. Trump in November 2019, bringing a federal defamation action tied to Trump’s public denials after Carroll’s June 2019 published allegation; she filed a second complaint on Nov. 24, 2022 — the day New York’s Adult Survivors Act took effect — adding a battery/sexual-assault claim and additional defamation allegations [1] [2] [3]. The two suits overlap factually but were pleaded and litigated as distinct cases, producing separate trials, verdicts and multimillion‑dollar awards now under appeal [4] [5].
1. Origins: the 2019 defamation suit and what it targeted
Carroll publicly accused Trump in mid‑2019 of sexually assaulting her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid‑1990s; after Trump loudly denied the allegation and said he didn’t know her and she wasn’t his “type,” Carroll filed her first lawsuit in November 2019 alleging defamation based on those statements and related public comments [1] [3] [6]. That initial case — commonly referred to in filings as Carroll I — focused on whether Trump’s post‑publication denials and descriptions of Carroll were false and defamatory and whether they injured her reputation [3] [6].
2. The second filing: Nov. 24, 2022 and the Adult Survivors Act window
When New York enacted the Adult Survivors Act, creating a one‑year window to revive otherwise time‑barred civil claims for sexual assault, Carroll filed a second suit on Nov. 24, 2022, expressly invoking that statute; that complaint (Carroll II) added a battery/sexual‑assault claim alleging the Bergdorf Goodman incident itself, alongside a separate defamation count tied to statements Trump made in October 2022 on Truth Social [2] [7] [5]. The timing was strategic and statutory: the ASA’s effective date opened a new civil pathway for the underlying assault claim that Carroll could not bring earlier because of the statute of limitations [2] [8].
3. Precisely what each suit alleged, in legal terms
Carroll I (filed November 2019) primarily alleged defamation — that Trump’s 2019 public denials and attacks on her credibility after New York Magazine published an excerpt of her book were false, defamatory and caused reputational harm [1] [3]. Carroll II (filed Nov. 24, 2022) asserted two principal claims: a battery/sexual‑assault claim alleging that Trump sexually assaulted and digitally penetrated her in a Bergdorf dressing room in the mid‑1990s, pleaded under New York law and revived by the ASA, and a second defamation claim based on later public statements Trump made denying the allegation [8] [7] [5].
4. Litigation path, evidentiary fights and results tied to each suit
The suits produced distinct trials and rulings: a 2023 jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and for defamation in the first trial, awarding $5 million (the courts and juries treated the sexual‑abuse and related defamation theories in closely connected proceedings), and a subsequent 2024 jury awarded Carroll roughly $83.3 million for additional defamation tied to Trump’s post‑verdict attacks — bringing the two judgments to about $88.3 million, all of which have been appealed [4] [5] [9] [10]. Judges overseeing the cases admitted contested evidence — including the 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape and testimony from other women alleging similar conduct — rulings later reviewed and largely upheld on appeal [9] [7].
5. Procedural complications: federal removal, the Westfall Act and scope‑of‑office disputes
The litigation was complicated by executive‑branch intervention and novel jurisdictional disputes: the Justice Department at one point certified that Trump was acting within his official capacity for certain statements, seeking substitution of the United States under the Westfall Act and removal to federal court — motions that were litigated and rejected in part, leaving Trump personally liable in state defamation claims and producing appellate questions about the limits of presidential immunity for such statements [11] [8] [9]. Those procedural fights affected which claims could proceed when and framed much of the appellate litigation now pending [11] [9].
6. Bottom line and limits of available reporting
In short, Carroll’s first suit was filed in November 2019 and alleged defamation tied to Trump’s 2019 denials; her second suit was filed Nov. 24, 2022 under New York’s Adult Survivors Act and added a battery/sexual‑assault claim plus further defamation counts related to October 2022 statements [1] [2] [8]. Reporting documents the allegations, filings, trials, verdicts and appeals; if further granular docket dates or unreported settlement negotiations exist beyond those sources, those particulars are not reflected in the provided reporting [3] [7].