Writer E. During a visit to New York City in December, Jean Carroll claims she went shopping with a fashion consultant to find the "best outfit" for one of the most critical days of her life, sitting face-to-face with former President Donald Trump, the man she accuses of raping her decades ago.
The author and the journalist hope that this year's day will come. Her attorneys are attempting to depose Trump in a defamation case brought in November 2019 by Carroll against the former president after he refuted her claim that he assaulted her in the mid-1990s at a Manhattan department store. Trump said Carroll never met him and accused her of lying about selling her new book, adding, "She's not my type."
If Trump is deposed, she plans to be there.
In an interview, Carroll told Reuters, "I am living for the moment to walk into that room to sit across the table from him," "I think of it everyday."
In her case, Carroll, 77, a former Elle magazine writer, demands unspecified damages and a retraction of the comments made by Trump. It is one of two cases of defamation involving charges of sexual assault against Trump that could move forward quicker now that he has left the presidency. While in office, Trump's attorneys postponed the case in part by claiming that his office's urgent obligations made it difficult to respond to civil litigation.
"The only barrier to proceeding with the civil suits was that he's the president,"The only obstacle to proceeding with the civil litigation was that he is the president.
"I think there will be a sense among the judges that it's time to get a move on in these cases," said Roberta Kaplan, Carroll's counsel.
An attorney for Trump and another former president's representative did not respond to requests for comment.
In 2016, Zervos accused Trump of sexual misconduct, saying that he kissed her against her will at a 2007 meeting in New York and later groped her at a California hotel as the two met to discuss job opportunities. Trump faces a similar defamation lawsuit from Summer Zervos, a former contestant on his reality television show "The Apprentice."
Trump refuted the claims and branded Zervos a liar, leading her to sue him, seeking damages and a retraction in 2017 for defamation. Trump unsuccessfully sought to get the lawsuit dismissed, arguing that he was immune from suits brought in state courts as president. His counsel appealed to the Court of Appeals of New York, which is still reviewing the case. In early February, Zervos filed a petition asking the court to resume the case now that Trump is no longer president.
In the years before he became president, Zervos and Carroll were among more than two dozen women who publicly accused Trump of sexual assault that they say occurred. Other accusers include an old model who claims that Trump assaulted her sexually in the U.S. in 1997. Open tennis tournament; a former Miss Universe pageant contestant who said she was groped by Trump in 2006; and a reporter who alleges that Trump forcibly kissed her at his Mar-a-Lago resort without her consent in 2005.
The allegations have been denied by Trump and called politically motivated.
In September, after several unsuccessful attempts by Trump's lawyers to dismiss or delay Carroll's case, the U.S. Under his administration, Justice Department officials took the unusual step of asking that Trump be replaced by the government as the defendant in the case. Lawyers from the Justice Department argued that Trump is entitled under federal law to immunity from civil lawsuits when performing his job, like any typical government employee. They argued that when he said Carroll was lying, he was acting in his capacity as president.
Legal experts said it was unprecedented for the Department of Justice to defend the behavior of a president before he took office. The Justice Department appealed when Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Federal District Court in Manhattan rejected that argument. It has yet to be decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Whether officials from the Justice Department under President Joe Biden, who took office last month, will continue to defend the case on Trump's behalf has yet to be seen. The White House and the Department of Justice declined to comment.
It would probably clear the way for Trump to be deposed by Carroll's lawyers if the appeals court upholds the decision of Judge Kaplan.
Male DNA Unidentified
A DNA sample from Trump is also being sought by Carroll's lawyers. Carroll says that she still has the dress she wore when she was allegedly attacked by Trump.
"I hung it in my closet," she said.
Carroll said that in the mid-1990s, she randomly crossed paths with Trump at the Bergdorf Goodman store. Carroll, who at the time hosted a TV talk show, said she was recognized by Trump. Both of them chatted, she said. Trump asked her to choose an unidentified woman's gift, and they finally ended up in the lingerie department. Trump closed the door in the dressing room after asking her to try on a bodysuit, pinned her against a wall, unzipped his pants, and, according to the complaint, sexually assaulted her.
Carroll said she told two friends shortly after the alleged attack, but did not report Trump to the police, fearing the wealthy and well-connected businessman's retribution. Decades later, in a June 2019 New York magazine article, adapted from a new book, "What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal." Carroll went public with her story.
She said she was inspired by the #MeToo movement to recount the incident, which encouraged women to share their sexual assault and harassment experiences. Kaplan, at the request of the magazine's photography director, wore the same black Donna Karan dress she said she wore on the day she was allegedly assaulted by Trump, in photos shot for that story.
Later in 2019, when Carroll filed her lawsuit, her lawyer, Kaplan, had a guard escort her to retrieve the dress for forensic testing from her closet. An analysis concluded that no semen on the dress was found, but according to the Jan. 8, 2020 lab report, which was reviewed by Reuters, the DNA of an unidentified male was detected on the shoulder and sleeves.
It would not prove his guilt if the dress contained traces of Trump's DNA. But according to two forensic experts not involved in the case, a match could be used as proof that he had contact with the dress and to help disprove his claims that he had never met Carroll.
"How his DNA got on that dress would be the argument," said Monte Miller, a biochemist who runs a consultancy for DNA analysis and previously worked at the State Crime Laboratory of the Texas Department of Public Safety. "It's for the attorneys and the courts and everybody else to argue about why it's there and how it got there."
Carroll said that she's confident Trump owns the DNA on the dress and wants her day in court. She said she now sleeps next to her bed with a gun because, since publicly accusing Trump, she has received death threats.
Carroll, who meets regularly with other women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct, said: "This defamation suit is not about me," Every woman "who can't speak up." is about it.
(employees have not edited this story, and it is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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