Judge rejects Donald Trump bid to dismiss E. Jean Carroll's first
defamation lawsuit
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[June 30, 2023]
By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) -A federal judge on Thursday rejected Donald Trump's
bid to dismiss the first of writer E. Jean Carroll's two lawsuits
accusing the former U.S. president of defamation for denying he raped
her in the mid-1990s.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan found no merit in Trump's
arguments that he deserved absolute presidential immunity, and that many
of his statements about Carroll were opinion and thus protected.
The judge also rejected Trump's claim that the former Elle magazine
columnist "consented" to his statements by purposely waiting decades to
go public, until he was in the White House, leaving him "no choice" but
to defend himself.
Alina Habba, a lawyer for Trump, said: "We disagree with the court's
decision and will be taking the appropriate steps to preserve all viable
defenses."
The case is separate from last 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 similarly denied their alleged
encounter. Jurors did not find that Trump raped Carroll.
Carroll's lawyer Roberta Kaplan, who is not related to the judge, said
Thursday's decision "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 magazine, as she was preparing to release her memoir, of having
attacked her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in
Manhattan.
That prompted Trump, 77, to say he had not known Carroll, that she was
not his "type," and that she lied to drum up book sales.
BEYOND THE 'OUTER PERIMETER'
In his 46-page decision, Kaplan said Trump waited too long to raise the
absolute immunity defense, and that it would be unfair to Carroll to let
him do so now and further delay the 3-1/2-year-old case.
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E. Jean Carroll, former U.S. President
Donald Trump rape accuser, arrives at Manhattan Federal Court for
the continuation of the civil case, in New York City, U.S., May 9,
2023. REUTERS/David 'Dee' Delgado/File Photo
The judge also said Trump's criticism of Carroll went beyond "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 appealing the $5 million jury verdict.
On Tuesday, he countersued Carroll, claiming that she defamed him in
a CNN interview one day after the May 9 verdict by saying, "oh yes
he did, oh yes he did," when asked about the jury finding that he
did not commit rape.
Carroll's original lawsuit is scheduled for a Jan. 15, 2024, trial.
She is seeking at least $10 million in damages. Kaplan this month
let her amend her lawsuit to add Trump's comments from a CNN town
hall following the jury verdict, in which he called 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.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Chizu
Nomiyama, Jonathan Oatis and Grant McCool)
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