On Wednesday, a federal appeals court rejected Donald Trump’s bid to postpone a defamation lawsuit filed by writer E. Jean Carroll. However, the court did grant an expedited appeal on the question of whether he can claim absolute presidential immunity as a defense.
Just last week, Judge Lewis Kaplan, who was appointed during the Clinton administration, ruled that Trump was legally responsible for defamatory remarks he made about E. Jean Carroll following her rape accusation against him.
In May, a Manhattan jury reached a verdict in the E. Jean Carroll rape and defamation case.
In 2019, E. Jean Carroll accused Donald Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room during the 1990s.
Trump has denied the accusations, and described E. Jean Carroll as a “whack job who’s not my type.”
The jury determined that Trump had sexually assaulted and defamed Carroll, and they ordered him to pay $5 million in compensation.
She went after Trump again after Trump blasted E. Jean. Carroll during a CNN town hall in May.
She is seeking at least $10 million in damages in this separate case.
The trial is set to begin on January 15, 2024.
As reported by CNBC:
A federal appeals court on Wednesday denied a bid by Donald Trump to delay a defamation lawsuit by the writer E. Jean Carroll but granted him an expedited appeal on the question of whether he can claim absolute presidential immunity as a defense.
The order by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals is a partial victory for Trump after a series of significant losses in two lawsuits that Carroll filed against him related to her allegation of being raped by him in the mid-1990s in a New York department store.
Barring further action by that appeals court or the Supreme Court, the second of Carroll’s suits remains scheduled for trial in mid-January in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
But the 2nd Circuit in its order Wednesday consolidated two pending appeals by Trump and ordered his lawyers and Carroll’s attorney to file legal briefs on the dispute over the next 35 days.
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