E. Jean Carroll sexual assault lawsuit against Trump can proceed: Judge
Kaelan Deese
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A judge on Friday denied former President Donald Trump‘s bid to dismiss a lawsuit filed by author E. Jean Carroll, who has alleged the former president sexually assaulted her more than two decades ago.
Trump’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed in November by Carroll was denied by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan. The judge rejected Trump’s argument that New York‘s Adult Survivors Act, under which Carroll filed her claim, is unconstitutional, but Kaplan contended that position was “without merit.”
“Both of his arguments are without merit,” Kaplan said.
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The former president sought to challenge the constitutionality of the ASA, which creates a one-year window for the revival of otherwise time-barred civil claims arising from sexual offenses committed against people who were over the age of 18 at the time of conduct.
One of Trump’s arguments was that Carroll’s defamation claim was legally insufficient because her “special damages” allegation was without merit.
The judge also rejected Trump’s argument that Carroll’s claim under the ASA must be dismissed because the law violated the due process clause of the state’s constitution, calling his position “absurd,” according to the 28-page ruling.
“To suggest that the ASA violates the state Due Process Clause because the legislature supposedly did not describe that injustice to the defendant’s entire satisfaction in a particular paragraph of a particular type of legislative document – itself a dubious premise – is absurd,” Kaplan said.
Trump attorney Alina Habba told the Washington Examiner she was “disappointed” in the court’s decision and vowed to immediately appeal the order. Habba added her team would “continue to advocate for our client’s constitutionally protected rights.”
Carroll announced her claim against Trump in 2019, saying he raped her in the mid-1990s in a dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York City when he was a private citizen. The then-president said at the time Carroll was fabricating the allegation to sell a book and said she wasn’t his “type,” prompting her to file a defamation lawsuit.
The defamation case is also before Kaplan but was delayed by Trump’s argument that his denial was part of his official duties as president. That trial is set to go before the same judge in April if an ongoing appeal by Trump fails.
The judge’s Friday ruling also allows Carroll to move forward with another defamation claim against Trump that is tied to her sexual assault suit. That claim is based on an October social media post in which he restated his denials and remarks about her character.
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Prior to the ASA, New York had the Child Victims Act, which fulfilled a similar function in cases involving minors. It was the same law that Jeffrey Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre utilized in her lawsuit against Prince Andrew, who she alleged sexually abused her when she was 17.
Prince Andrew argued the statute wouldn’t apply because Giuffre reached the age of consent at the time. He criticized the law similarly as Trump is now challenging the ASA, and the lawsuit against Prince Andrew resulted in an out-of-court settlement.