A federal judge has rejected former president Donald Trump’s bid to dismiss writer E. Jean Carroll’s second lawsuit accusing him of defamation for denying he raped her in the mid-1990s.
Trump argued that Carroll could not prove defamation because she failed to allege “special damages”.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan said Trump’s argument against the former Elle magazine columnist was without merit.
Trump also argued that Carroll’s battery claim under New York’s Adult Survivors Act must be dismissed because the law denied him due process under the state’s constitution. The judge also rejected that claim.
Carroll accused Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in late 1995 or early 1996. Trump first denied the accusation in June 2019, telling a reporter at the White House that he did not know Carroll. He also said that she was “not my type,” and that she made up the claim to sell her new memoir.
He continued to repeat his denial claims.
Trump said in an October 2022 social media post that the rape was a “hoax,” “lie” and “complete scam.” He also claimed, “this can only happen to ‘Trump’!”
Experts in rape have said trumps language around his accuser is classic rape culture, claiming denial and that women only make claims because of other reasons besides justice.
Trump is no stranger to being labeled a rape apologist or an assailant. During his 2016 campaign for president, a tape was leaked where he famously said to grab women by the pussy.
A lawyer Trump was grilled about the former president’s recent inflammatory statements against a rape accuser during a court hearing in which Trump is trying to fend off a defamation lawsuit brought by the accuser for his earlier White House-era smears against her.
Trump attorney Alina Habba told the Washington, DC, Court of Appeals, which has been asked to weigh in on the Carroll lawsuit, it would not be appropriate for her to address Trump’s recent anti-Carroll remarks.
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