A judge has denied Donald Trump’s request to throw out the columnist’s defamation claims

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Former President Donald Trumps claim that absolute presidential immunity and free speech rights shield him from defamation by a New York columnist was rejected Thursday by a federal judge.

The writer, E. Jean Carroll, may continue to press claims that Trump owes her at least $10 million in damages for comments she made before and after she won a $5 million sexual abuse and sentence against him last month, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said in a written opinion.

Trump tried to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that he was entitled to absolute presidential immunity, that his statements were not defamatory and that his statements were opinion protected by free speech rights.

Kaplan said Trump waived absolute presidential immunity as a defense by failing to assert it years ago when the suit was filed. The lawsuit was delayed until recently while appellate courts considered the legal issues surrounding it.

Trump lashed out at Carroll this week, saying she lied to him by continuing to insist he raped her even after a jury found otherwise.

After the jury returned its verdict last month in Manhattan federal court, Trump made comments during a CNN town hall that prompted Carroll to assert new defamation claims in a 2020 defamation lawsuit.

The jury award resulted from a sexual assault and defamation lawsuit filed in November after New York state temporarily enacted a law allowing victims of sexual assault to sue for damages result of attacks that occurred even decades ago.

Trump’s remarks on the CNN broadcast echoed statements he made while president in 2019 when Carroll published a memoir in which he claimed Trump raped her in the dressing room of a luxury midtown Manhattan department store in the spring of 1996.

In hours of excerpts from the book published in a magazine, Trump denied that a rape had occurred or that he knew Carroll.

Not only did Mr. Trump deny the accusation of Ms. Carrolls of sexual assault, Kaplan wrote. Instead, he accused Ms. Carroll lying about her sexually assaulting him in order to increase sales of his book, gain publicity, and/or pursue a political agenda.

The judge said the primary purpose of presidential immunity is to prevent the president from deviating from public duties, but it is not a get-out-of-damages-liability-free card that allows the president to say or do whatever he wants. even. if that conduct is wholly removed from an official duty.”

Kaplan said he considered that Carroll is now 79 years old and has pursued claims against Trump for 3 1/2 years.

There is no basis to risk prolonging the resolution of this litigation by allowing Mr. Trump to raise his absolute immunity defense now at the eleventh hour when he did so years ago, he said.

Rejecting claims that Carroll’s lawsuit is about protected speech, Kaplan explained how libel and defamation are handled in the courts and why Trump’s statements could be interpreted to fit the legal definition for defamation, including that a jury had already found it.

Trump’s lawyers did not immediately comment.

Attorney Robbie Kaplan, who represents Carroll and is unrelated to the judge, said in a statement that the judge’s decision proves that once again, Donald Trump’s supposed defenses against E. Jean Carrolls claims do not work. Defamation.”

He added: “Today’s decision removes another hurdle to the January 15 trial of E Jeans’ defamation damages in this case.

The Associated Press typically does not name people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they go public, as Carroll did.

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