Writer E. Jean Carroll Accusing Trump of Rape Proceeds with Lawsuit
New York: A New York judge has rejected US President Donald Trump's bid to temporarily halt proceedings in a lawsuit filed against him by writer E. Jean Carroll, who has accused him of rape, a ruling that allows the case to move forward in the months before the presidential election.
The decision was a victory for Ms Carroll, who sued Mr Trump in November for defamation after he called her a liar and said he had never met her. She published a memoir last summer that accused Mr Trump of attacking her in a department store dressing room in Manhattan in the 1990s.
Lawyers for Mr Trump had sought to put the lawsuit on hold while an appeals court is deciding whether to dismiss a similar lawsuit filed against Mr Trump by Ms Summer Zervos, a former contestant on The Apprentice who has accused him of sexually assaulting her.
In their bid for a delay, the lawyers also said the Constitution gave a sitting President immunity against lawsuits in state court.
Justice Verna Saunders in New York rejected their arguments, pointing to a recent US Supreme Court ruling that concluded that Mr Trump could not block a subpoena for his tax returns by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.
The Supreme Court ruling determined that the President did not possess absolute immunity against state criminal subpoenas.
Although that ruling pertained to a criminal investigation, Ms Saunders wrote that the same legal question was relevant to Ms Carroll's lawsuit - "whether the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution bars a state court from exercising jurisdiction over a sitting president of the United States during his term."
"No, it does not," the judge wrote.
She said the Supreme Court's ruling applied to "all state court proceedings in which a sitting president is involved", including those involving the president's unofficial or personal conduct.
Mr Trump's lawyers, who did not respond to a request for comment, could appeal against the ruling.
