Judge rejects Trump’s bid to dismiss lawsuit by author who accused him of rape

By Reuters: A federal choose on Thursday rejected Donald Trump’s bid to dismiss the primary of author E. Jean Carroll’s two lawsuits accusing the previous U.S. president of defamation for denying he raped her within the mid-Nineties.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan discovered no advantage in Trump’s arguments that he deserved absolute presidential immunity, and that a lot of his statements about Carroll had been opinion and thus protected.

The choose additionally rejected Trump’s declare that the previous Elle journal columnist “consented” to his statements by purposely ready a long time to go public, till he was within the White House, leaving him “no choice” however to defend himself.

Alina Habba, a lawyer for Trump, stated: “We disagree with the court’s decision and will be taking the appropriate steps to preserve all viable defenses.”

The case is separate from final month’s verdict by a federal jury in Manhattan that Trump pay Carroll $5 million for defamation and sexual abuse, after Trump in October 2022 equally denied their alleged encounter. Jurors didn’t discover that Trump raped Carroll.

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Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan, who shouldn’t be associated to the choose, stated Thursday’s choice “confirms that once again, Donald Trump’s supposed defenses to E. Jean Carroll’s defamation claims don’t work.”

Now 79, Carroll drew Trump’s ire in June 2019 when she accused him in New York journal, as she was getting ready to launch her memoir, of getting attacked her in a Bergdorf Goodman division retailer dressing room in Manhattan.

That prompted Trump, 77, to say he had not recognized Carroll, that she was not his “type,” and that she lied to drum up guide gross sales.

BEYOND THE ‘OUTER PERIMETER’

In his 46-page choice, Kaplan stated Trump waited too lengthy to boost absolutely the immunity protection, and that it could be unfair to Carroll to let him achieve this now and additional delay the 3-1/2-year-old case.

The choose additionally stated Trump’s criticism of Carroll went past “the outer perimeter of his official duties” as president.

“Mr. Trump does not identify any connection between the allegedly defamatory content of his statements — that Ms. Carroll fabricated her sexual assault accusation and did so for financial and personal gain — to any official responsibility of the president,” Kaplan wrote. “Nor can the court think of any.”

Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is interesting the $5 million jury verdict.

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On Tuesday, he countersued Carroll, claiming that she defamed him in a CNN interview at some point after the May 9 verdict by saying, “oh yes he did, oh yes he did,” when requested concerning the jury discovering that he didn’t commit rape.

Carroll’s unique lawsuit is scheduled for a Jan. 15, 2024, trial.

She is looking for at the very least $10 million in damages. Kaplan this month let her amend her lawsuit so as to add Trump’s feedback from a CNN city corridor following the jury verdict, during which he referred to as her account “fake” and labeled her a “whack job.”

The case is Carroll v Trump, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 20-07311.