Trump asks for defamation suit to be tossed because he was 'merely writing' about rape accuser

Donald Trump asked a federal judge to toss a defamation lawsuit filed against him by his rape accuser E. Jean Carroll.

The former president's attorneys filed a motion seeking the dismissal of her second lawsuit, arguing it should have been "obvious" he was "merely writing" about Carroll's first lawsuit in an Oct. 12, 2022, social media post where he called the rape claim "a Hoax and a lie" and insisted the advice columnist and author was "not my type," reported Reuters.

"We expect plaintiff ... to quibble with the exactness of the connection and nexus" between Trump's post and lawsuit, but the law "does not require such exactness," the filing says.

Carroll's lawsuit includes a battery claim under New York's Adult Survivors Act that allows sex abuse victims to sue their attackers after the statute of limitations runs out for criminal charges, and that claim is not covered under the dismissal request.

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A trial is scheduled for April 25.

The former president faces twin allegations of rape and defamation in a case dating back to 2019.

In an excerpt of her book published by New York Magazine, Carroll said she was raped by Trump in the changing room at the luxury Bergdorf Goodman department store on Fifth Avenue in New York in the mid-1990s.

Trump denied the accusation, saying Carroll was "not my type" and that she was "totally lying." Carroll sued him over that latter remark.

Trump has said he never met Carroll and his lawyers have argued that Trump had immunity since he was president in 2019.

At the time Carroll could not seek to have Trump charged with rape because the statute of limitations for the alleged offense had expired.

But a new law has since taken effect in New York that protects victims of sexual assault decades after attacks may have occurred. It gives sexual assault victims in New York state a one-year window to sue their alleged abusers even when the abuse occurred long ago.

So lawyers for Carroll filed an upgraded civil suit last year that accuses Trump of battery, "when he forcibly raped and groped" her, and for defamation in a post on his Truth Social platform last month where he denied the alleged rape.

The suit ask fornunspecified compensatory and punitive damages for psychological harm, pain and suffering, loss of dignity and damage to her reputation.

With additional reporting by AFP