Lawyers for E. Jean Carroll told a judge she plans to sue former President Donald Trump under a new New York statute that allows victims of sexual assault to sue years after the encounter.
In a new court filing in her defamation case against Trump, Carroll’s attorneys said she intends to sue Trump in late November under the New York Adult Survivors Act that allows adult survivors to bring claims that would otherwise be barred by the statute of limitations. Carroll will allege battery and intentional infliction of emotion distress in the suit, her lawyers told the judge.
The law applies to survivors of sexual offenses that occurred when they were over the age of 18, with a one-year window beginning November 24 – six months after New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the bill – and allowing claims regardless of the statute of limitations. It mirrors the 2019 Child Victims Act that expanded the statute of limitations in child sex abuse cases to give survivors more time to sue their abusers.
Carroll’s lawyers acknowledged it was unusual to notify a judge and defendant of a “yet-to-be-filed” lawsuit but said they were doing so given the ongoing related litigation.
Trump has denied raping Carroll at a New York department store in the mid-1990s. He has also denied defaming Carroll.
Carroll’s lawyers also said they changed their mind and now want Trump to sit for a deposition in the defamation lawsuit, despite telling the judge earlier this year that it was unnecessary.
In the new filing, they said a deposition is the only way to go since Trump has “barely participated” in the fact finding process.
Trump was late in providing documents and provided “boiler plate” responses, Carroll’s lawyers said in a letter to the judge.