A federal judge Thursday denied former President Trump’s attempt to toss out an initial defamation suit brought by author E. Jean Carroll.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected the former president’s request for summary judgement in the case, as well as his attempt to assert absolute presidential immunity.
“Judge Kaplan’s denial of summary judgment confirms that once again, Donald Trump’s supposed defenses to E Jean Carroll’s defamation claims don’t work,” Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said in a statement.
“Trump chose to waive presidential immunity and now he must live with the results of that decision,” she added. “Today’s decision removes one more impediment to the January 15 trial on E Jean’s defamation damages in this case.”
The case, which is set to go to trial in January, is separate from the defamation and sexual assault suit from Carroll that went to trial earlier this year. The jury in that case found Trump liable for sexual battery and defamation and awarded the author $5 million in damages.
The current defamation case is based on several comments the former president made in June 2019, when Carroll first accused Trump of raping her in Bergdorf Goodman department store in the mid-1990s. Among the alleged defamatory statements is an interview that the former president gave to The Hill.
“I’ll say it with great respect: Number one, she’s not my type. Number two, it never happened. It never happened, OK?” Trump told The Hill in the June 2019 interview.
Trump has continued to deny the allegations against him. Just one day after the jury verdict came down last month, the former president claimed at a CNN town hall that he doesn’t know “who this woman is.”
“I have no idea who the hell she is. She’s a whack job,” he added.
Carroll later updated her complaint in the defamation suit to include the former president’s latest remarks.