Trump says will sue rape accuser over defamation claim

In this file photo taken on June 30, 2021, former US president Donald Trump speaks during a visit to the border wall near Pharr, Texas. (SERGIO FLORES / AFP)

Former president Donald Trump told a judge he plans to sue New York advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, alleging her defamation lawsuit against him was filed in bad faith after he denied her claim that he raped her in a department store dressing room two decades ago.

Former president Donald Trump made the same legal move two months ago in a similar case. In October, he filed a counterclaim against his onetime “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos, who had also accused Trump of sexual assault and then sued him for defamation after he denied it

Trump, who recently replaced his legal team in the suit Carroll filed against him in 2019, on Wednesday asked the federal court in Manhattan for permission to add a counterclaim, which he included in his request to the judge.

The former president made the same legal move two months ago in a similar case. In October, he filed a counterclaim against his onetime “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos, who had also accused Trump of sexual assault and then sued him for defamation after he denied it. 

In November, with Zervos’s long-sought deposition of Trump just weeks away, Zervos agreed to drop the suit. Neither side explained why.

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Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment. 

Trump’s counterclaim in both cases alleges a violation of New York’s Anti Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation statute, known as an anti-SLAPP law. It is meant to deter “ill-intentioned lawsuits – particularly those meant to discourage public participation or chill the free speech of others,” according to the filing by Trump’s new lawyer, Alina Habba.

Lawyers for Carroll and Trump are scheduled to appear Friday in a federal appeals court, where she is fighting an attempt by the US Justice Department to replace Trump as defendant in the case. If that happens, it would result in the lawsuit being tossed out.

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The Biden administration has argued that Trump is protected from Carroll’s lawsuit because he made the allegedly defamatory statements about her while he was a federal employee.

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