Former President Donald Trump was set for a deposition on Wednesday in the ongoing defamation case from writer E. Jean Carroll, which concerns the then-president’s responses to her revealing an incident in which she says he sexually assaulted her in the 1990s.
Trump was set for questioning under oath by a Carroll attorney. Trump has maligned Carroll’s appearance and tied her revelations to profit motives related to a book she wrote. In recent comments on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump actually rehashed some of the sentiments that initially got him sued. “And, while I am not supposed to say it, I will. This woman is not my type!” Trump proclaimed. “She has no idea what day, what week, what month, what year, or what decade this so-called “event” supposedly took place. The reason she doesn’t know is because it never happened, and she doesn’t want to get caught up with details or facts that can be proven wrong.” Being Trump’s lawyer must always be headache-inducing. In addition, his characterization of Carroll’s description of the timing of the incident is deceptive.
Trump was to sit for a deposition after he lost in a bid to halt the proceedings while a potentially upending decision from a D.C. appeals court looms. The judge denying Trump’s push for a delay said the ex-president “should not be able to run out the clock.” A New York appeals court ruled on only part of the question of Trump’s potentially protective status as a federal employee covering his disputed comments. The New York court asked the D.C. court to decide on whether Trump made those remarks specifically in his capacity as president, something that could result in an end to the case. A decision in Trump’s favor would be set to lead to tacking the Justice Department onto the proceedings, evidently in the former president’s place, and there are restrictions against suing the government for defamation that would keep Carroll from moving forward.
She has also indicated plans to sue Trump under newly enacted New York rules reopening chances for legal action by sexual assault victims otherwise limited by statutes of limitations. Any testimony Trump gives in Carroll’s defamation case could be used in that future case, and it wasn’t immediately clear whether Trump would answer questions or invoke legal protections when sitting for questioning this week. “The DC appeals court has not yet taken up the matter and it is unclear if or when they will,” CNN reported. Even if the court decided to deal with it, there’s no certain indication their decision would be in Trump’s favor, although he presumably could appeal. He and the Justice Department already faced a loss in lower-level court from Judge Lewis Kaplan. Trump is now also facing other serious court challenges, including a sweeping civil lawsuit from New York state Attorney General Letitia James, who is seeking the return of $250 million she connected to false statements of value at the Trump business.
