NEW YORK – A federal judge has refused Donald Trump’s bid to dismiss writer E. Jean Carroll’s original lawsuit accusing the former US president of defaming her by denying he raped her in the mid-1990s.
US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan rejected Trump’s arguments that he was entitled to absolute presidential immunity, that many of his statements were opinion, and that Carroll “consented” to his statements by waiting decades to go public, leaving him “no choice” but to defend himself.
Lawyers for Trump and Carroll were not immediately available to comment.
Carroll first drew Trump’s ire in June 2019 when she accused him of having attacked her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan, prompting him to say he did not know her and she was not his “type.”
On May 9, a Manhattan jury ordered Trump to pay the former Elle magazine columnist $5 million for defamation and sexual abuse in a separate lawsuit, after he made a similar denial in October 2022. The jury did not find that Trump raped her.
Trump is appealing the verdict. On Tuesday, he countersued Carroll, saying she defamed him in a CNN interview one day after the verdict by saying, “oh yes he did, oh yes he did,” when asked about the jury finding that he did not commit rape.
Carroll is seeking at least $10 million in damages in her original lawsuit. A trial is scheduled for Jan. 15, 2024.
Kaplan this month let Carroll amend her lawsuit to add comments Trump made in a CNN town hall following the $5 million verdict in her other lawsuit, where he called her account “fake” and labeled her a “whack job.” — Reuters
