Former President Donald Trump is required to sit for a defamation lawsuit filed by a woman who claimed he raped her in the 1990s next week, a judge ruled Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan rejected a request from Trump’s lawyers asking for the deposition to be delayed. Kaplan stated that Trump has tried on numerous occasions to delay the collection of evidence in the lawsuit and that he “should not be permitted to run the clock out” on author E. Jean Carroll, the plaintiff in this case.
“Given his conduct so far in this case, Mr. Trump’s position regarding the burdens of discovery is inexcusable,” Kaplan wrote. “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.”
JUDGE DISMISSES WISCONSIN CHALLENGE TO STUDENT LOAN CANCELLATIONS OVER STANDING
As of Wednesday, the deposition is scheduled to be held on Oct. 19.
The former president faces a lawsuit from Carroll, who sued Trump on claims he raped her in the mid-1990s. Carroll claimed in a book she released in June 2019 that she ran into Trump at the Bergdorf Goodman store in New York City in 1995 or 1996, where Trump allegedly pushed her against a dressing room wall before raping her.
Trump has denied the allegations, telling the Hill in 2019 that she was “totally lying.” He also dismissed a photo that showed the two at a party years before, telling reporters, “Standing with coat on in a line — give me a break — with my back to the camera. I have no idea who she is,” according to Axios.
On Sept. 27, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to ask an appeals court in Washington, D.C., for input on whether Trump was acting in his role as president in 2019 when he made his comments on Carroll. While the Manhattan court found that Trump made his comments when he was serving as president, which could give him immunity from her lawsuit as a government employee, it could not conclude whether his statements fell within his range of employment.
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In addition to this defamation lawsuit, Carroll is planning to file a new lawsuit against Trump under the recently passed Adult Survivors Act in New York, which allows New York residents over 18 to sue those they allege sexually assaulted them, regardless of the statute of limitations. Carroll’s lawyer wrote to a New York judge in August that the team intends to file the lawsuit on Nov. 24, which will be when all residents can file their lawsuits.
