Trump's defense off to a rocky start in defamation case — before the trial actually begins

Donald Trump's defense in a defamation suit by rape accuser E. Jean Carroll is off to a rocky start before the trial even begins.

The federal judge assigned to the case will allow a former People magazine correspondent to testify about her own experience with the former president, which could demonstrate a pattern of sexual assault, because the judge ruled Trump's lawyers filed their appeal too late -- just one of the setbacks he's already facing, reported The Daily Beast.

"Within seconds he was pushing me against the wall and forcing his tongue down my throat,” wrote journalist Natasha Stoynoff in a 2016 People column, which detailed her visit a decade earlier to Mar-a-Lago for a celebrity story on Trump's first wedding anniversary to a pregnant Melania. "[Trump's butler] burst into the room a minute later, as I tried to unpin myself.”

Trump will stand trial this week in Manhattan for allegedly raping Carroll in a department store changing room in the 1990s, and the longtime magazine journalist sued him for defamation because he claimed she was lying and then expanded the case to include battery under a new state law that allows sexual assault victims to sue after the statute of limitations for criminal charges has expired.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled last month that Stoynoff may testify, but Trump's last-minute attempt to block her is among many failed attempts to keep evidence of his misogynistic statements and boorish behavior -- which includes the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape and 2016 rally speeches insulting women who've accused him of sexual misconduct -- from being introduced.

Carroll's attorney Roberta Kaplan, who is not related to the judge, ripped Trump's attorneys in her own filing for waiting too late to analyze documents they'd been provided months before in discovery and missing deadlines to appeal the judge's previous decisions, and she pointed out that Stoynoff's allegations show the former president had “violated at least two Florida statutes, thus satisfying the crime requirement.”

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