American author Jean Carroll (78) has filed a new lawsuit against former US President Donald Trump (76) before a court in New York. Carrol accuses the Republican of raping her in a New York department store in the mid-1990s. Carroll is now seeking damages for personal injury and reputational damage, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday by her attorneys. Trump has repeatedly denied the rape allegation.
Until now, Carroll had not sued Trump himself on the rape charge, but only on libel. Because the deadline for filing criminal charges for sexual assault in the 1990s had long passed. A new law in the US state of New York now offers victims of sexual assault in previous cases such an opportunity. Carroll’s attorneys filed the new lawsuit immediately after it went into effect Thursday.
hearing adjourned
The defamation proceedings, which have been ongoing for some time, relate to statements made in 2019. Carroll had made the rape allegation public in an excerpt from a book. Trump denied the allegations, saying, among other things, that she was not his type. He also accused her of only trying to sell her new book. Carroll then sued Trump for portraying her as a liar and defaming her.
In October, Trump had to testify under oath in the trial. The hearing was then stayed by an appeals court as judges must clarify whether Trump will be protected from legal repercussions for statements he made during his presidency from 2017 to 2021. (SDA/no)