The trial will be about how much Trump needs to pay in damages, the judge wrote
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled in a pretrial summary judgment that the upcoming Jan. 15, 2024, trial will only be about how much former President Donald Trump owes writer E. Jean Carroll in her defamation suit.
The partial victory was granted in a Sept. 6 order after the judge denied a request from President Trump’s attorneys to delay the trial in light of his ongoing criminal legal trials.
Ms. Carroll had brought two lawsuits against President Trump, one for defamation and the second for sexual battery and defamation in 2022 remarks, and won the second case earlier this year. The cases center around Ms. Carroll’s public accusation in 2019 that he raped her in the mid-1990s at a department store. When he was in office, President Trump publicly refuted the accusation and claimed that he had never met her. Ms. Carroll claimed that these high-profile public statements were defamatory. President Trump also claimed defamation in a countersuit, which was thrown out.
In 2022, New York state enacted the Adult Survivors Act, which allowed victims to bring forth sexual offense cases outside of the statute of limitations for one year, between November 2022 and November 2023.
In May, Ms. Carroll won $5 million in the sexual battery lawsuit. The jury found that President Trump “sexually abused” Ms. Carroll, using the term defined by the court, and also found him liable for defamation. She then amended her first lawsuit, seeking $10 million in compensatory damages.
The upcoming trial will deal with the amount of compensatory damages owed.
Summary Judgment
Given that the jury in Ms. Carroll’s second case awarded damages for defamation, Ms. Carroll requested that the court rule for her in the first case. President Trump disputed the argument, which the judge dismissed.
By Catherine Yang
