E. Jean Carroll exits the Manhattan Federal Court following the verdict in the civil rape accusation case against former U.S. President Donald Trump, in New York City, May 9, 2023.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
A federal judge on Thursday denied Donald Trump’s motion to dismiss the original civil defamation lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll, an author who alleges the former president defamed her after she accused him of sexual assault.
According to Judge Lewis Kaplan of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Trump’s arguments for dismissing the case are “baseless.”
This ruling comes after several recent developments in the long-running legal battle between Trump and Carroll. Carroll claims that Trump raped her in a New York City department store in the mid-1990s and subsequently defamed her when she made her story public decades later.
Roberta Kaplan, Carroll’s attorney (no relation to the judge), stated that this ruling demonstrates that Trump’s defenses against the defamation claims are ineffective.
“By choosing to waive presidential immunity, Trump must now face the consequences of that decision,” the attorney added.
A representative for Trump did not respond immediately to CNBC’s request for comment.
Just two days prior, Trump filed a counterclaim against Carroll in the same case, accusing her of defamation for persistently claiming he raped her.
His counterclaim refers to various statements made by Carroll, including remarks she made a day after a jury in a related civil case found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming her, ultimately awarding Carroll $5 million in damages.
However, the jury did not find Trump liable for rape in their May 9 verdict. When Carroll was asked about this finding in a CNN interview, she emphatically repeated her claim: “Oh yes he did, oh yes he did.”
Trump’s lawyers filed to dismiss the original lawsuit in December, arguing that he had “absolute immunity” because he made the allegedly defamatory statements while serving as president. They also claimed that Carroll’s defamation claims did not meet legal standards, among other arguments.
Judge Kaplan, in his 46-page ruling on Thursday, was unconvinced. He rejected the presidential immunity argument, stating, “Mr. Trump fails to establish any connection between the defamatory content of his statements…and any official responsibilities of the president. Nor can the Court envision any possible connection.”
Carroll initially filed the defamation suit against Trump in 2019, during his presidency. After her account of sexual assault was published in New York Magazine, Trump consistently denied the allegations, even stating, “She’s not my type.”
In 2022, Carroll filed a second civil suit against Trump. Shortly after the verdict in that case, Trump vehemently criticized Carroll in a live CNN town hall event and once again denied her accusations.
Following this, Carroll amended her complaint in the first lawsuit to include Trump’s latest comments and sought damages of at least $10 million. The trial is scheduled to begin on January 15, 2024.
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