Judge allows E. Jean Carroll to add Trump's CNN town hall comments to lawsuit

A New York judge ruled Tuesday that writer E. Jean Carroll may amend her lawsuit against former President Donald Trump to include comments he made during a CNN town hall denying her allegations against him.

A jury held Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation against Carroll in early May, but specifically determined that Trump had not raped Carroll. She was awarded $5 million in damages. Trump, for his part, has maintained his denials of her claims and moved to appeal the verdict.

Trump subsequently appeared on a CNN town hall event during which he again denied Carroll's allegations and mocked her story. She had claimed he raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room sometime in the 1990s.

The case decided in May is separate from Carroll's initial 2019 defamation suit, which has struggled to advance due to questions over Trump's immunity, given he was president at the time he made the relevant comments to that suit. Carroll had sued Trump for defamation after she first came forward with her story. The judge permitted Carroll to amend this suit to include his town hall comments, according to The Hill.

The judge has set a deadline of July 13 for the Department of Justice to determine whether Trump has immunity for comments he made while in office.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.