US Judge Rejects Trump’s ‘Bad Faith’ Countersuit in Prolonged E. Jean Carroll Defamation Saga

In December 2020, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan issued an order denying US President Donald Trump’s request to substitute the US Department of Justice as the defendant in a defamation lawsuit filed by E. Jean Carroll, who, in 2019, accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.

Former US President Donald Trump’s attempt to invoke New York’s anti-SLAPP law has been denied by US District Judge Lewis Kaplan, according to a 23-page decision in which the latter ripped the former and his legal team for “bad faith” litigation and dilatory tactics.

Anti-SLAPP laws are intended to counter ‘strategic lawsuits against public participation,’ which have become a common tool for those seeking to use the court system or expensive legal proceedings to silence or intimidate criticism from individuals exercising free speech.

“In the court’s view, characterization of defendant’s previous and threatened future actions as dilatory, in bad faith or unduly prejudicial would be a bootless exercise,” Kaplan wrote. “They are, in varying degrees, all three.”

The judge highlighted that Trump and his legal team, despite their intent, “have delayed the case to an extent that readily could have been far less.”

“Plaintiff’s only claim in this case is a single count of defamation,” the US District Judge added. “It could have been tried and decided—one way or the other—long ago.”

The prolonged legal saga began when E. Jean Carroll, a former columnist for Elle Magazine, released a book excerpt in June 2019, in which she accused Trump of raping her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman, a department store in midtown Manhattan.

Trump at the time rejected Carroll’s claims in an interview with The Hill, by suggesting that she was not his “type” and was lying in an attempt to stir up controversy and gain personal fame. Trump’s comments prompted Carroll to file her defamation lawsuit.

The former US president currently remains the defendant in the case, despite his in-office attempt to have the US Department of Justice intervene. Kaplan argued that even if Trump was in office at the time of the alleged mid-90s incident, his statements toward Carroll would be outside the scope of his employment.

U.S. President Donald Trump rape accuser E. Jean Carroll arrives for her hearing at federal court during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., October 21, 2020

© REUTERS / Carlo Allegri

Kaplan’s most recent decision, dated Thursday and filed on Friday, comes weeks after he questioned Trump lawyer Alina Habba’s request to invoke anti-SLAPP legislation enacted by New York in November 2020.

“I question whether you have the right to do what you are seeking to do, because it seems to me it’s entirely inconsistent with the notion of futility,” Kaplan noted, during a February hearing in the Manhattan borough of New York City.

Habba has since responded to Kaplan’s Friday filing, vowing to continue fighting the lawsuit.

“While we are disappointed with the Court’s decision today, we eagerly look forward to litigating this action and proving at trial that the plaintiff’s claims have absolutely no basis in law or in fact,” a Trump attorney told The Hill in an emailed statement.

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