A Manhattan judge has denied former President Donald Trump’s bid to postpone his deposition next week in journalist E. Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit against him.
The Elle magazine “Ask E. Jean” advice columnist filed suit in 2019, claiming Trump defamed her when he publicly denied her accusations that he raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room in the early 1990s.
Carroll is scheduled for deposition on Oct. 14, while Trump’s sworn testimony is slated for Oct. 19.
Trump last week asked Manhattan federal Judge Lewis Kaplan to pause the case while an appeals court rules on whether he should have immunity since he was president at the time he made the comments about Carroll.
But Kaplan on Wednesday ruled that Trump has been fighting the case in court “with the effect and probable purpose of delaying it,” and that any further postponements would hurt Carroll, while moving forward wouldn’t harm the former president.
“Completing those depositions — which already have been delayed for years — would impose no undue burden on Mr. Trump, let alone any irreparable injury,” Kaplan wrote. “A stay would cause substantial injury to plaintiff.”
The judge said that since New York’s recent Adult Survivors Act will allow Carroll to file suit over the alleged rape — which had previously been outside the statute of limitations — any information in this case could potentially be used if she does decide to sue.
“The question whether Mr. Trump raped Ms. Carroll is the paramount issue in both cases,” the judge wrote.
The judge said Trump has already delayed the case for too long. APTrump’s lawyer Alina Habba didn’t say whether she plans to appeal the new decision, but claimed that Carroll’s case is meritless.
“We look forward to establishing on the record that this case is, and always has been, entirely without merit,” Habba said.
Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, said they are pleased with the decision. Her client plans to file the rape suit once the Nov. 24 one-year look-back window opens, she added.
“We are pleased that Judge Kaplan agreed with our position not to stay discovery in this case,” Roberta Kaplan said. “We look forward to filing our case under the Adult Survivors Act and moving forward to trial with all dispatch.”
Kaplan has previously ruled that Trump doesn’t have immunity in the case, but the appeal of that ruling is still pending.
