Trump seeks to toss E. Jean Carroll sexual assault lawsuit and claims new New York law is unconstitutional

Former President Donald Trump requested a federal courtroom on Wednesday to dismiss the sexual assault lawsuit, introduced underneath a brand new state regulation in New York, that was filed by the ex-magazine columnist who has accused Trump of rape.

Trump alleges within the movement to dismiss that the regulation, the Grownup Survivors Act, runs afoul of the New York state structure’s due course of protections. He additionally referred to as the extra defamation declare the accuser, E. Jean Carroll, is bringing within the lawsuit “baseless and legally faulty.”

The Grownup Survivors Act went into impact on November 24 and Carroll introduced the go well with in opposition to Trump that day. The regulation provides grownup survivors of sexual assault one 12 months to file lawsuits in opposition to their perpetrators, even when the statute of limitations on their claims has expired.

The lawsuit is the second Carroll has introduced in opposition to Trump, however the first to hunt to carry him accountable for battery for allegedly raping Carroll within the dressing room of a New York division retailer within the mid-Nineteen Nineties. By his attorneys, Trump has denied any wrongdoing.

Within the new lawsuit, she is asking a choose to order Trump to retract allegedly defamatory statements he’s made about her and award compensatory, punitive and exemplary damages in an quantity to be decided at trial.

In 2019, Carroll sued the then-president for defamation after he denied her sexual assault allegation, mentioned he by no means met Carroll, that she wasn’t his sort, and that she made up the story to spice up gross sales of her new e-book.

In final month’s lawsuit, Carroll re-upped these earlier statements and added a brand new one, from October 2022, when Trump mentioned related issues about her as he was set to take a seat for a deposition associated to the 2019 lawsuit.

Carroll’s 2019 defamation lawsuit in opposition to Trump has been hanging within the steadiness as he and the Justice Division have argued that he was appearing throughout the scope of his duties as president when he answered reporters’ questions in regards to the allegations.

Whereas a federal choose sided with Carroll, an appeals courtroom discovered that Trump was an worker of the federal authorities on the time of the remarks however requested the DC Courtroom of Appeals to weigh in on whether or not his feedback had been within the scope of his employment.

The DC appeals courtroom has expedited the case and will resolve early subsequent 12 months. If the courtroom guidelines in opposition to Carroll, the case will possible be dismissed as a result of the federal authorities can’t be sued for defamation.

If the 2019 case is dismissed, the defamation claims from 2022 wouldn’t be impacted since Trump was not a federal worker in October when he made the brand new statements.