Donald Trump told a large crowd on Thursday that four women alleging he groped or kissed them without permission are “horrible, horrible liars” and that he would consider suing for defamation the outlets that publicized their claims.

But in calling the women liars, the GOP presidential nominee offered them an avenue to sue him that would not otherwise have existed.

In states where the women likely would take Trump to court, the deadline to bring criminal or civil cases alleging assault long ago passed. But now the women have a new clock ticking to file a defamation lawsuit if they believe Trump falsely called them liars.

Women who say they were sexually assaulted by celebrity Bill Cosby already have used this tactic, surviving motions to dismiss in some cases, though in one case a judge did dismiss a lawsuit, finding that various Cosby team statements did not infer she was a liar.

“Ironically, the fact that numerous Trump supporters are making offensive and degrading comments on social media and beyond are aggravating any potential damages,” Cornell Law School professor Jeffrey Rachlinski says. “In effect, his assertion that they are liars is causing far more harm to these women because it is inducing people to verbally attack them.”

Trump’s accusers include a woman who says she was groped by the billionaire at his Florida Mar-a-Lago resort in 2003 and a People magazine writer who says she was pushed against a wall of the same property and kissed without consent in 2005. Another woman says that in 2005 Trump kissed her on the lips during an encounter at New York’s Trump Tower after she introduced herself. And another woman says around 1979 Trump groped her “like an octopus” without permission aboard an airplane to New York.

As with the civil deadlines in New York, Florida and Ohio – where one of the women now lives – it’s almost certain the women cannot bring assault charges in New York or Florida, where statutes of limitations passed years ago for plausible charges.

If the accusers sue Trump, they likely would be considered at least limited purpose public figures, having sought out press coverage. This means they would have to show Trump made false statements about them with actual malice, meaning that he knew what he was saying was untrue or that he was acting with reckless disregard for the truth.

But with no footage yet surfacing to prove if the incidents happened, who would decide if Trump is lying or if the women are?

Pace University law professor Leslie Garfield Tenzer says the women "wouldn't have to prove evidence of abuse, they would have to prove that Trump called them liars and as a result they suffered economic harm."

The accusers "would have to prove is that Trump called them liars," she says. "Trump then has the defense of truth. So in a perverse kind of way, Trump would have to show that the assault did not happen.”

Rachlinski says the women could win a lawsuit “if a judge or jury believed both that the assault occurred and Trump knew what he was doing when he denied it,” though he doubts they will sue.

Tenzer says they likely would also get punitive damages to punish Trump if they won. Rachlinski agrees, and says he doubts their actual economic harm from being allegedly defamed may be slim to none.

University of Miami law professor Donald Jones says the women "would have a much better case" than the case Trump would bring against newspapers, though he says the women's case may still be a close call.

"Nothing's guaranteed. Anything's possible if you have billions of dollars," Jones says. "But he thrust himself into this arena knowing what his background is."

Jones says the publications that reported on Trump's accusers this week could defend themselves successfully against a Trump lawsuit by showing reporters made a solid effort to assess the veracity of the claims and printed them for news value.

And if the women sued Trump, Jones says the number of accusers and the candidate's past could be knocks against him.

“He attacks everyone else and says 'I’m impeccable.' So he has created this situation," Jones says. "Because of his long history, his credibility is quintessentially capable of being impeached. It is his history, it's the number of women saying the same thing. ... He has made a record for himself in an effort to brand himself as a macho male of doing things that transgress."

The accusations come after the release last week of a hot-microphone recording in which Trump spoke with journalist Billy Bush in 2005 about kissing and touching women without their permission.

"I'm automatically attracted to beautiful women. I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet – just kiss, I don't even wait," Trump told Bush. "And when you're a star they let you do it, you can do anything. Grab them by the pussy, you can do anything."

The New York Times, which reported on two of the Trump accusers, released a letter Thursday from its attorney responding to a Trump threat to sue, saying the paper would welcome the chance to address the matter in court.