Woman who accused Trump of rape wins ruling

NEW YORK >> A New York judge has rejected 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 Carroll, who sued 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 Trump of attacking her in a department store dressing room in Manhattan in the 1990s.

Lawyers for Trump had sought to put the lawsuit on hold while an appeals court is deciding whether to dismiss a similar lawsuit filed against Trump by 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.

On Thursday, Justice Verna Saunders in New York rejected their arguments, pointing to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that concluded 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, Saunders wrote that the same legal question was relevant to Carroll’s lawsuit. For now, the ruling allows the lawsuit to enter the crucial discovery phase, in which both sides will exchange documents and other materials.

Lawyers for Carroll had requested that Trump provide a DNA sample to determine whether his genetic material is on a dress that Carroll said she was wearing at the time of the incident.