E. Jean Carroll considers new claims against Trump after he disparaged his sexual abuse victim on CNN

NEW YORK — E. Jean Carroll was considering new claims against Donald Trump Thursday after he once again slandered the woman he sexually abused on prime-time television.

At a Trump campaign rally-style “town hall” Wednesday on CNN, Trump repeated remarks that formed the basis of Carroll’s successful defamation claim, telling news anchor Kaitlan Collins that Carroll was a “wack job” who fabricated the assault — which was met with whistles and cheers by the Republican audience.

During the interview, Trump insulted well-respected Manhattan federal court Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over his case.

Asked whether she was considering more legal action in light of Trump’s latest remarks, Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, told the New York Daily News she was “thinking about it.”

Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina declined to comment.

In an exclusive interview with The New York Times, which first reported Carroll was considering a new claim, the longtime advice columnist said she didn’t watch Trump on CNN but read a transcript of his remarks.

“It’s just stupid, it’s just disgusting, vile, foul, it wounds people,” Carroll said, telling the paper she had been “insulted by better people.”

“I am upset on the behalf of young men in America,” Carroll said. “They cannot listen to this balderdash and this old-timey view of women, which is a cave-man view.”

Carroll, 79, won her civil battery and defamation lawsuit against Trump on Monday following a two-week trial in which she presented 11 witnesses. A jury took less than three hours to award her $5 million in finding Trump liable for sexually abusing her on an unoccupied floor of a Midtown department store in the mid-1990s and defaming her decades later when she came forward.

Jurors heard graphic testimony about the assault inside Bergdorf, in their verdict finding Carroll had suffered severely due to it and Trump’s harassment campaign decades later.

Also Thursday, Trump’s lawyers filed a notice of appeal in Manhattan federal court. They are expected to file it in New York’s 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in the coming months.

Trump also did himself no legal favors by discussing taking classified documents and trying to overturn the 2020 election at the CNN town hall.

Instead of dodging questions about the scandals, Trump made potentially damaging admissions on both cases while trying to defend himself in front of a national TV audience.

Federal and state prosecutors including special counsel Jack Smith are investigating Trump’s role in both cases, making it foolhardy for him to speak openly and potentially give them more ammunition.

On the documents case, he admitted that he intentionally took classified documents with him when he left the White House.

“I didn’t make a secret of it,” Trump told Collins. “You know, the boxes were stationed outside the White House, people were taking pictures of it.”

That statement effectively contradicts his own lawyers who have claimed the classified documents might have gotten inadvertently mixed up with other personal documents.

Trump also said he might have shown the documents to others, confirming a key fear of prosecutors and national security experts.

“Not really ... not that I can think of,” he said, brushing off those concerns.

Trump sought to defend his actions by repeating his claim that he had every right to declassify any documents he wants and do whatever he wants with them.

Even if he believed that dubious legal claim were true, showing them to others would likely still be a crime, experts say.

At the very least, it would be wise to not openly discuss such potential law-breaking.

On the election interference front, Trump emphatically defended his extremist supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 and vowed to pardon almost all of them who have been convicted of federal crimes.

That could offer Smith more proof of Trump’s motive in instructing his loyal followers to “fight like hell” to keep him in power during a fiery speech that sparked the attack.

Trump also framed his infamous call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in a way that could hurt him in court.

The former president said he called Raffensperger to bully him into “finding” enough votes because the Republican election official “owed him votes” because of Trump’s false claims that the Peach state election was rigged.

Trump’s transactional description of the call and his push to overturn his loss in Georgia is likely to be fodder for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis as she probes Trump’s effort.

Indictments are expected this summer, although Willis has not said if she will charge Trump.

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