Nov. 17 (UPI) — Lawyers for the woman who accused Donald Trump of raping her said in court documents Thursday that she will file a new defamation and battery lawsuit against the former president on Thanksgiving Day.
E. Jean Carroll, a journalist and advice columnist, wrote an article in June 2019 for New York Magazine in which she first accused Trump of forcefully raping her in the Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York City in the mid-1990s.
Trump denied the allegations, accusing Caroll of lying with political and financial motivations. Months later, she filed a defamation lawsuit in the New York Supreme Court alleging that Trump’s comments had damaged her reputation and caused her substantial professional harm and emotional pain.
Lawyers for Trump’s Justice Department said in court documents that he was acting in his official capacity as president when he made comments about Carroll after her initial accusations, meaning that he could not be sued because the government cannot be sued for defamation.
A U.S. District Court judge later rejected the Justice Department’s claim and said that Trump, as president, is not a government employee and that his comments were not related to his job. The Justice Department then appealed in November 2020.
The Justice Department, under the administration of President Joe Biden, argued before the appeals court in June 2021 that its lawyers should defend Trump as a federal employee.
Trump was ultimately deposed as a witness in the case in October and oral arguments have been scheduled to begin in January ahead of a trial.
The revelation that a new lawsuit would be filed were made Thursday in court documents attached to that case and indicate that Carroll plans to include a claim of battery centered under a new state law, the Adult Survivors Act, which allows sexual assault victims to file a civil lawsuit even when the statute of limitations has passed.
The court documents, obtained by UPI, show that Carroll plans to file the new lawsuit against Trump on Thanksgiving Day, adjourning the trial date for the prior case and asking that the two cases be heard at the same trial on April 10.
