A judge has, once again, denied former President Donald Trump's attempt to stop the defamation case that writer E. Jean Carroll has brought against him.
Fox News reports that U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected Trump's motion for a stay pending appeal in a 17-page opinion that he released on Friday.
This motion was Trump's fourth attempt to stop the defamation case.
Trump has been unsuccessful on each occasion.
Carroll is the author and columnist who has accused Trump of two things: sexual assault and defamation.
Regarding the sexual assault allegation, Carroll has alleged that Trump, in the mid-1990s, raped her in the dressing room of a New York department store, in the midtown Manhattan Bergdorf Goodman. Then, Carroll claims that Trump, just recently, defamed her with statements that he made about her claims.
Trump has vehemently denied the allegations. In fact, Trump has said that not only has he never sexually assaulted Carroll but that he does not even know who Carroll is.
In May, however, a jury sided with Carroll, awarding her $5 million. To be clear, the jury did not find that Trump raped Carroll. Rather it found that he "sexually abused" her and defamed her by denying her story.
Carroll had previously brought another lawsuit against Trump. This other lawsuit actually dates back to 2019, and it is another defamation lawsuit.
This 2019 lawsuit is the one referred to at the outset of this article.
As mentioned earlier, Trump and his legal team have been trying various legal tactics in order to stop this 2019 lawsuit from Carroll. But, the judge has rejected each attempt so far.
Fox reports:
The case has dragged on for over three years as Trump has — so far unsuccessfully — made various arguments for why there can be no dispute over the facts, and that he is entitled to win as a matter of law. In December 2022, Trump for the first time argued that he has absolute presidential immunity for his 2019 statements about Carroll. However, the court rejected that argument, finding that the former president had waived his immunity defense by failing to raise it earlier in the case.
Trump is appealing this decision, and, in his latest motion, Trump asked the judge to delay the case until the appeal can be resolved. But, Kaplan refused.
Kaplan, in fact, called Trump's motion "frivolous" and "another such attempt to delay unduly the resolution" of the case.
"For the foregoing reasons, Mr. Trump’s motion for a stay pending appeal (Dkt 185) is denied. This Court certifies that the appeal itself is frivolous," Kaplan wrote.
