Trump deposed in writer's defamation suit over rape claim

[October 20, 2022]  By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Former U.S. President Donald Trump was deposed on Wednesday in a defamation lawsuit brought in New York by writer E. Jean Carroll after he denied her allegations that he had raped her, lawyers for both sides said in separate statements.

The deposition came a week after a federal judge denied Trump's bid to postpone the proceeding, rejecting his contention in legal filings that subjecting the former president to questioning under oath in the lawsuit would impose an "undue burden."

"We're pleased that on behalf of our client, E. Jean Carroll, we were able to take Donald Trump's deposition today," her spokesperson said in a statement, declining to provide further details.

An attorney for Trump, Alina Habba, issued a separate statement later in the day confirming the deposition, saying: "As we have said all along, my client was pleased to set the record straight today."

Habba added: "This case is nothing more than a political ploy like many others in the long list of witch hunts against Donald Trump." .

Carroll, 78, a former Elle magazine advice columnist, sued Trump in Manhattan federal court in November 2019, five months after he denied raping her in the mid-1990s. In denying the allegations, Trump said at the time that Carroll was "not my type."

Trump, 76, has accused Carroll of making up the original accusation and said the courts should have thrown out the lawsuit. Habba has previously called the case "entirely without merit."

Former U.S. President Donald Trump holds a rally ahead of the midterm elections, in Mesa, Arizona, U.S., October 9, 2022. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo

In seeking to delay the deposition, Trump had argued that the case should be put on hold while a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., decides whether he was acting in his official capacity as president when he called Carroll a liar.

His lawyers have argued that Trump was shielded from Carroll's lawsuit by a federal law providing immunity to government employees from defamation claims.

Carroll has said she also plans to sue Trump on Nov. 24 for battery and inflicting emotional distress.

On that date, a recently enacted New York state law gives victims a one-year window to sue over alleged sexual misconduct even if the statute of limitations has expired.

Carroll has accused Trump of raping her in late 1995 or early 1996 in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan. Trump has accused her of concocting the rape claim to sell her book.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Will Dunham, Bill Berkrot and Gerry Doyle)

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