Attorneys for Donald Trump and E. Jean Carroll have agreed to a short delay of deadlines in a defamation case against the former president.
The request for delay comes days after U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan approved a $92 million bond that will allow Trump to request a new trial after a jury found him liable for defaming Carroll by denying her rape claims.
On Wednesday, Trump attorney John Sauer and Carroll attorney Roberta A. Kaplan agreed that deadlines should be extended by one week. The attorneys presented the judge with a proposed order for the delay.
Trump lawyer Alina Habba did not appear as a lead attorney on the filing.
"WHEREAS on March 5, 2024, Mr. Trump filed motions for judgment as a matter of law and for a new trial," the filing said. "WHEREAS the parties have met and conferred regarding Ms. Carroll's request to extend to March 26, 2024 the deadline for responding to both motions; WHEREAS Ms. Carroll requested this extension due to the diversion of attention caused by the need to respond to Mr. Trump's motions to stay execution of judgment, ECF 286, and to approve supersedeas bond, ECF 317, as well as by the March 20, 2024 deadline that the Second Circuit has established for Ms. Carroll's appellee brief in Carroll II."
"Mr. Trump consents to Ms. Carroll's request and has sought a reciprocal one-week extension on his reply deadline, to which Ms. Carroll has consented," the document noted.
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The attorneys asked the judge to set Carroll's deadline to respond to March 26 and Trump's deadline for April 9.
"Ms. Carroll maintains that a one-time, single-week extension of the deadlines is consistent with ensuring an expeditious resolution of Mr. Trump's post-trial motions," the filing said.
Carroll, a former Elle magazine columnist, lodged a defamation lawsuit against Trump while he was president of the United States. In her lawsuit, Carroll accused Trump of defaming her after she publicly asserted that he sexually assaulted her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.
Following Carroll's allegations, Trump vehemently denied her claims, dismissing them as falsehoods aimed at tarnishing his reputation. He labeled Carroll's narrative as "fiction" and suggested she was promoting a book.
Carroll argued that Trump's denial and disparaging remarks caused her reputational harm and emotional distress, prompting her to pursue legal action. He was found liable for defamation and, in an earlier civil trial, sexual abuse.
