Former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll sued former President Donald Trump for the second time on Thursday, alleging defamation and battery under a new law in New York that allows adult sex assault victims to file claims that would otherwise be barred by the passage of time.
New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which took effect on Thanksgiving, opens a one-year window for adult victims to file claims.
Carroll previously sued Trump for defamation over statements he made in 2019 when he denied her claim that he raped her in the dressing room of Bergdorf Goodman in the 1990s. Her new lawsuit alleged a second claim of defamation over statements Trump made last month.
It also alleged battery as she seeks to hold him accountable for the sexual assault that he has long denied.
“Trump’s underlying sexual assault severely injured Carroll, causing significant pain and suffering, lasting psychological harms, loss of dignity, and invasion of her privacy. His recent defamatory statement has only added to the harm that Carroll had already suffered,” the lawsuit said.
Trump called Carroll’s claim “a Hoax and a lie” in a post last month on his social media platform Truth Social. “And, while I am not supposed to say it, I will. This woman is not my type!” the post added.
“Trump’s false, insulting, and defamatory October 12 statement about Carroll—and his actual malice in making that statement—is fully consistent with his tried-and-true playbook for responding to credible public reports that he sexually assaulted women,” the lawsuit said.
Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, asked the judge hearing the first lawsuit to deem the second one a related matter.
Carroll’s first lawsuit is pending the outcome of a January proceeding in the D.C. Court of Appeals.
Trump has argued the Justice Department should be substituted as the defendant in the case because, at the time of his allegedly defamatory statements, he was an employee of the federal government, which cannot be sued for defamation.
The Washington, D.C. Court of Appeals, which retains jurisdiction over the conduct of federal government employees, has scheduled oral arguments for January to decide whether Trump was acting in his official capacity as president when he denied Carroll’s rape claim and allegedly defamed her. If so, the case would go away.
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