E Jean Carroll’s defamation suit against Donald Trump moving forward
The White House previously sought to delay the suit and use the Department of Justice to fight A lawsuit is moving forward accusing the president of defamation for saying writer E Jean Carroll was lying after she accused him of rape, ABC News reports, with the start of the discovery process potentially beginning this year, despite various White House attempts to halt it.
“We look forward to finally moving ahead with discovery in the case, which has been on hold since Trump filed his motion for a stay last February,” Ms Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan said in a statement. Lawyers representing the president did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A conference is scheduled to discuss the suit in early December, a sign it could be moving forward.
The Department of Justice, acting on a request from the White House, took the rare step of trying to intervene and defend the president as a government employee rather than an individual in the civil lawsuit, arguing the allegations questioned his fitness for office and thus related to his official duties in office.