Trump to testify in defamation case brought by woman's claims of rape
4 Min Read
A court ruled Tuesday that Donald Trump must testify in April as part of a defamation lawsuit filed by a woman who claims he raped her in the 1990s.
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Former US President Donald Trump (Bloomberg)
A court ruled on Tuesday that Donald Trump must testify in April as part of a defamation lawsuit filed by a woman who claims he raped her in the 1990s.
The former US President is accused of rape and defamation in a case filed in 2019 by journalist E. Jean Carroll.
Both parties took depositions before Judge Lewis Kaplan in October, and on Tuesday he signed an order establishing April 10 as the start date for the defamation trial, as requested by Carroll. She sued Trump for defamation in a New York civil court in 2019.
She claimed in an excerpt from her book published by New York Magazine that year that Trump raped her in the changing room of the luxury Bergdorf Goodman department store on Fifth Avenue in New York in the mid-1990s.
The former President denied the accusation, saying Carroll was "not my type" and that she was "totally lying". Carroll sued him over that latter remark.
Trump said he never met Carroll, and his lawyers have argued that Trump has immunity because he is the president of the United States in 2019.
Carroll could not charge Trump with rape at the time because the statute of limitations for the alleged offense had expired. However, a new law has since taken effect in New York, which protects victims of sexual assault decades after attacks may have occurred. It allows victims of sexual assault in New York state a one-year window to sue their alleged abusers, even if the abuse occurred many years ago.
Trump accused of battery, defamation
So Carroll's lawyers filed an upgraded civil suit against Trump last Thursday, accusing him of battery "when he forcibly raped and groped" her, as well as defamation in a post on his Truth Social platform last month in which he denied the alleged rape.
This suit seeks a civil trial in 2023 and unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for psychological harm, pain, and suffering, loss of dignity, and damage to her reputation.
The introduction to the new lawsuit states, "Roughly 27 years ago, playful banter at the luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman on Fifth Avenue in New York City took a dark turn when Defendant Donald J. Trump seized Plaintiff E. Jean Carroll, forced her up against a dressing room wall, pinned her in place with his shoulder, and raped her."
The trial now scheduled for April concerns only the defamation allegation.
Carroll argued that she remained silent for more than 20 years out of fear of reprisals but changed her mind after the #MeToo movement beginning in 2017 against violence toward women.
Trump claimed Carroll "completely made up a story that I met her at the doors" of Bergdorf Goodman in a post on his Truth Social account on October 12.
"It is a hoax and a lie, just like all the other hoaxes played on me."
Trump answers questions under oath
Last month, former US President Donald Trump answered questions under oath in a lawsuit filed by Carroll, who has accused Trump of raping her in the mid-1990s in a department store dressing room.
This gave Carroll's lawyers a chance to interrogate Trump about the allegations, in addition to statements he made in 2019 when she revealed her story publicly for the first time.
Read next: Judge blocks Trump's countersuit against rape accuser
“We’re pleased that on behalf of our client, E. Jean Carroll, we were able to take Donald Trump’s deposition today. We are not able to comment further," said Kaplan Hecker & Fink in a statement - the firm representing Carroll.
Trump slammed the allegations as a "hoax and a lie." His lawyers have spent years delaying his deposition in the lawsuit, which was filed when he was President at the time.
