President Donald Trump’s lawyers are seeking to dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed against him by writer and longtime columnist E. Jean Carroll. The lawyers argued in a motion on Friday that the suit “cannot go forward in New York state court because his statements were made in Washington,” according to the Associated Press.
In June 2019, Carroll published a piece in New York Magazine accusing Trump of sexually assaulting her more than twenty years ago. After the president said that she was “totally lying,” and that the accusation was “fake news,” Carroll filed a defamation lawsuit against him in New York County Supreme Court.
See previous story: E. Jean Carroll Files a Defamation Suit Against Trump for Saying She Lied About Sexual Assault
Trump’s motion for dismissal did not address Carroll’s claims against him.
In a statement to the New York Post, Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, said Trump’s argument was “obviously ridiculous,” and that the motion was really “a transparent effort to avoid discovery at all costs.”
“When E. Jean’s case was filed, Donald Trump maintained a home in New York, was registered to vote in New York, paid taxes in New York, and has been sued in New York on numerous occasions–including since 2016–without any objections,” Kaplan told the New York Post.
This story has an update.
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