NEW YORK — Former magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll is suing former President Donald Trump for assault and defamation under a new New York law that allows adults who report sexual assault to file lawsuits years after the assault. This is reported by CNN.
Carroll filed the lawsuit Thursday, the first day civil lawsuits can be filed under a new law, the Adult Survivors Act, which gives adults a one-year window to file a lawsuit.
The lawsuit is the second Carroll has filed against Trump, but the first to hold him liable for battery for allegedly raping Carroll in a dressing room at a New York department store in the mid-1990s. The lawsuit also claims the new defamation lawsuit is based on statements Trump made last month.
Carroll is asking the judge to order Trump to retract his defamatory statements and to award compensatory, punitive and exemplary damages in an amount to be determined at trial.
“Trump’s underlying sexual assault has seriously injured Carol, causing her significant pain and suffering, lasting psychological harm, loss of dignity and invasion of her privacy. His recent defamatory remarks have only added to the damage Carroll has already suffered,” the lawsuit alleges.
At a hearing Tuesday in the ongoing lawsuit, Trump’s attorney, Alina Haba, told Judge Lewis Kaplan that she has not yet been brought in to represent Trump in the Adult Survivors Act lawsuit.
Kaplan noted that Trump knew the lawsuit “has been going on for months, and he would be well advised to decide who is representing him in it.”
In 2019, Carol sued Trump for defamation after he denied her sexual assault allegations, said he had never met Carol, that she was not his type, and that she made up the story to boost sales of her new book .
In Thursday’s trial, Carroll repeated those previous statements and added a new one from October 2022, when Trump said similar things about her when he was set to testify in connection with the 2019 trial.
“I don’t know this woman, I have no idea, except that she seems to have taken a picture of me years ago, with her husband, shaking my hand in the reception area at a celebrity charity event. recounted how I met her at the door of this crowded New York department store and within minutes “brought her back to consciousness,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.
“This is a hoax and a lie, just like all the other hoaxes that have been played on me over the past seven years. And even though I shouldn’t say it, I will. This woman is not my type!’ the message said.
Hubba, responding to Thursday’s filing, said: “While I respect and admire those who are coming forward, this case is unfortunately an abuse of the purposes of this Act, which sets a terrible precedent and risks discrediting the true victims.” .
Carroll’s 2019 defamation lawsuit against Trump hung in the balance. Trump’s lawyers contested the lawsuit, saying the Justice Department should be substituted as a defendant because Trump, as president, answered reporters’ questions about Carroll’s allegations. The Ministry of Justice agreed.
Kaplan ruled in Carroll’s favor, but Trump and the Justice Department appealed. A federal appeals court in New York ruled that Trump was a federal employee at the time, but asked an appeals court in Washington, D.C., to determine whether the statements were within the scope of his employment.
The D.C. Court of Appeals has expedited the case and could issue a decision early next year. If the court rules against Carroll, the case will likely be dismissed because the federal government cannot be sued for defamation.
If the 2019 case is dismissed, the defamation claims from 2022 will not be affected because Trump was not a federal employee last month when he made the new claims.
Carroll’s attorneys previously asked Kaplan to consolidate the 2019 and 2022 actions into one trial early next year. The judge said he would be weighed next week.
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