A New York State Supreme Court judge denied President Trump’s request to dismiss a defamation lawsuit by writer E. Jean Carroll, who has accused the president of raping her.
Judge Doris Ling-Cohan declined to order a hearing on Trump’s request to dismiss the defamation suit in a decision this week, The Associated Press reported Thursday.
Trump’s lawyers said in a filing last week Carroll cannot sue the president in New York because the statements at issue were made in Washington.
She reportedly said the argument made by Trump’s lawyers to dismiss the case was not backed up by the president.
“There is not even a tweet, much less an affidavit by defendant Trump in support,” Ling-Cohan wrote in a decision provided to lawyers in the case Thursday, according to the AP.
Carroll filed the defamation lawsuit in November, following her allegations that Trump had raped her in the mid-1990s. Trump has denied the allegations.
“Through express statements and deliberate implications, [Trump] accused Carroll of lying about the rape in order to increase book sales, carry out a political agenda, advance a conspiracy with the Democratic Party, and make money,” the defamation lawsuit states. “He also deliberately implied that she had falsely accused other men of rape. For good measure, he insulted her physical appearance.”
Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan told the AP she was pleased with the ruling.
“We look forward to moving ahead in this case and proving that Donald Trump lied when he told the world that he did not rape our client and had not even met her,” Kaplan said in a statement.