Lawyers for E. Jean Carroll have told a judge they plan to sue former President Donald Trump under a new New York law that allows sexual assault victims to sue years after the encounter.
In a new court filing in the defamation case against Trump, Carroll’s lawyers said she plans to sue Trump in late November under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which allows adult survivors to pursue claims that would otherwise be time-barred. from the statute of limitations. Carroll will allege battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress in the lawsuit, her attorneys told the judge.
The law applies to survivors of sex offenses that occurred when they were over 18, with a year starting Nov. 24 — six months after Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the bill — and allowing claims regardless of the statute of limitations. restrictions. It mirrors the 2019 Child Victims Act that extended the statute of limitations in child sexual abuse cases to give survivors more time to sue their abusers.
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Carroll’s attorneys acknowledged that it was unusual to notify a judge and the defendant of a lawsuit that has not yet been filed, but said they did so because of the ongoing related litigation.
Trump has denied raping Carroll in a New York department store in the mid-1990s. He has also denied defaming Carroll.
Carroll’s lawyers also said they changed their minds and now want Trump to sit for a deposition in the defamation suit, even though they told the judge earlier this year it wasn’t necessary.
In the new filing, they said the deposition is the only way to go, since Trump was “barely involved” in the fact-finding process.
Trump has been slow to provide documents and has given answers “on the boilerplate,” Carroll’s lawyers said in a letter to the judge.
