Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to reply questions below oath Wednesday in a defamation lawsuit introduced by a author who alleges he raped her within the mid-Nineteen Nineties.
E. Jean Carroll, who was a longtime columnist for Elle journal, sued Trump for defamation in 2019 after the then-president denied her allegations that he raped her in an upscale Manhattan division retailer’s dressing room. Carroll’s lawsuit claims the previous president ruined her fame when he denied the allegation.
A choose dominated final week that the previous president should sit for a deposition within the case, rejecting a request by Trump’s attorneys to delay the testimony. Trump’s attorneys had tried to quash the swimsuit by arguing that he was appearing in his capability as president when he denied the rape allegations — an argument that aimed to make the U.S. authorities the defendant and scale back Carroll’s probabilities of success given protections for federal staff who’re sued for actions on the job.
U.S. District Decide Lewis A. Kaplan wrote that the lawsuit should proceed after being in authorized limbo for 3 years, citing the “superior age” of Carroll, 77, and Trump, 76, and potential witnesses.
“The defendant shouldn’t be permitted to run the clock out on plaintiff’s try to realize a treatment for what allegedly was a severe improper,” Kaplan wrote.
Kaplan famous with disapproval a collection of makes an attempt by Trump to delay the gathering of proof within the defamation lawsuit.
“Given his conduct to date on this case, Mr. Trump’s place relating to the burdens of discovery is inexcusable,” he wrote. “As this Court docket beforehand has noticed, Mr. Trump has litigated this case because it started in 2019 with the impact and possibly the aim of delaying it.”
Trump took goal at Carroll in a put up on his social media platform after the choose denied his request to delay the deposition.
“This ‘Ms. Bergdorf Goodman’ case is an entire con job,” Trump wrote.
Trump has repeatedly denied ever assembly Carroll, saying she was “completely mendacity” when she accused him of sexual assault.
“I’ll say it with nice respect: Primary, she’s not my kind. Quantity two, it by no means occurred. It by no means occurred, OK?” Trump informed The Hill in 2019.
In a courtroom submitting final month, Carroll’s attorneys indicated she plans to sue Trump in November below a brand new New York statute that allows victims of sexual assault to sue years after the incident.
