Trump must sit for deposition next week in defamation lawsuit filed by writer E. Jean Carroll: Judge
BREAKING NEWS: Trump must sit for deposition next week in defamation lawsuit filed by writer E. Jean Carroll who accused him of rape, judge rules
- Donald Trump is scheduled for a deposition on October 19 in E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuit against him, a date which his lawyers have sought to delay
- Carroll accused Trump of raping her in a department store in the 1990s
- She said he defamed her when he publicly denied the accusations and suggested she conjured them to sell copies of her memoir
- The longtime columnist’s lawyer told DailyMail.com they were ‘pleased’
- Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba said the case was ‘entirely without merit’
Donald Trump was accused of making defamatory statements about a woman who accused him of raping her in the 1990s, but Trump’s lawyers argue that he should be shielded by a government statute protecting federal employees from defamation lawsuits
Donald Trump will be deposed under oath in a defamation suit brought by E. Jean Carroll, a writer who previously accused the ex-president of rape, a court ruled on Wednesday.
US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan denied Trump’s request to pause the October 19 deposition, in the latest legal blow he’s faced since leaving office.
Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba responded in a statement after the ruling, ‘We look forward to establishing on the record that this case is, and always has been, entirely without merit.’
Carroll wrote in her memoir that Trump raped her during an encounter in the mid-1990s in a Manhattan department store called Bergdorf Goodman.
She accused Trump of defaming her when he denied her claims and cast doubt on the longtime advice columnist’s credibility and motivation.
He told The Hill in 2019 that ‘she’s not my type,’ and suggested she conjured the rape allegation to peddle her book.
Carroll’s lawyer Roberta ‘Robbie’ Kaplan told DailyMail.com of the judge’s decision, ‘We are pleased that Judge Kaplan agreed with our position not to stay discovery in this case. We look forward to filing our case under the Adult Survivors Act and moving forward to trial with all dispatch.’
The judge took aim at Trump’s lawyers’ attempts to delay the trial, a legal tactic the ex-president was known to rely on in times of trouble during his past life as a real estate executive.
‘The defendant should not be permitted to run the clock out on plaintiff’s attempt to gain a remedy for what allegedly was a serious wrong,’ Kaplan said, according to the Associated Press.
He blasted Trump’s legal moves in the case as ‘inexcusable.’
‘As this Court previously has observed, Mr. Trump has litigated this case since it began in 2019 with the effect and probably the purpose of delaying it,’ Kaplan ruled.
Columnist E. Jean Carroll accused Trump of raping her in a Manhattan department store. She accused him of defaming her with multiple public statements including brushing off her allegations by saying ‘she’s not my type’
Trump’s attorneys have sought to shield him from the case using a rule meant to protect federal employees from defamation lawsuits when acting in the scope of their governmental duties.
A three-judge panel ruled last month that Trump, as president, was a federal employee with a right to use the statute.
They punted to the Washington, D.C. Court of Appeals to decide whether Trump’s allegedly defamatory comments against Carroll were made within the scope of his presidency.
If the appeals court rules in Trump’s favor, the Biden administration can be substituted for Trump as the defendant in the lawsuit.
President Joe Biden’s Justice Department has continued to argue Trump’s position that the government should step in.
Carroll’s lawyer previously signaled her intent to sue Trump under the Adult Survivors Act, a law signed by New York Governor Kathy Hochul in May that is taking effect in November.
Under the new measure, adult sexual assault and rape survivors get a one-year ‘look back’ where they’re able to bring civil cases that would have otherwise timed out of the statute of limitations.