U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan has rejected Donald Trump’s attempt to delay a civil trial in New York next year.
“He has not engaged with this Court’s analysis of either question and thus shown no likelihood of success on appeal. Accordingly, this Court certifies that Mr. Trump’s appeal is frivolous and therefore has not divested this Court of jurisdiction,” Kaplan wrote in a document obtained by The Hill.
Under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, former President Donald Trump is being sued for defamation by former magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll. Carroll claims that Trump raped her in the dressing room of a department store in the mid-1990s. When allegations of the sexually violent incident arose, Trump denied them and claimed the former magazine columnist wasn’t her “type.”
“Trump’s underlying sexual assault severely injured Carroll, causing significant pain and suffering, lasting psychological harms, loss of dignity, and invasion of her privacy. His recent defamatory statement has only added to the harm that Carroll had already suffered,” the lawsuit reads.
Trump has refuted the defamation claims levied against him and the trial is expected to begin on January 15 in the state of New York. It is one of four high-profile cases the former President is at the center of in New York, Georgia and Washington, D.C.
