Trump, rape accuser Carroll conform to a single defamation trial By Reuters

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Former President Donald Trump and E. Jean Carroll have agreed to a single trial on whether or not Trump defamed the previous Elle journal columnist by denying he raped her within the mid-Nineties.

In accordance with a letter filed late Friday in Manhattan federal courtroom, legal professionals for each side agreed to an April 25 trial to contemplate whether or not the previous U.S. president ought to be responsible for vital statements about Carroll in June 2019 and final October.

Carroll has been pursuing separate lawsuits over these statements, with the primary scheduled for trial on April 10.

“Due to the overlapping nature of those proceedings, a single trial will cut back prices throughout the board, keep away from the danger of inconsistent factual rulings or jury confusion, and save money issues for the courtroom,” her lawyer Roberta Kaplan wrote.

The proposed schedule requires approval by U.S. District Decide Lewis Kaplan, who oversees each circumstances and isn’t associated to Roberta Kaplan.

Alina Habba, one among Trump’s legal professionals, signed a proposed order combining the circumstances. Joseph Tacopina, one other lawyer for Trump, in an e-mail mentioned he additionally discovered it acceptable.

A trial would come within the midst of Trump’s marketing campaign for a second White Home time period.

Carroll, 79, has accused Trump of raping her in a dressing room at a Bergdorf Goodman division retailer in Manhattan in late 1995 or early 1996.

She sued in November 2019 after Trump informed a reporter on the White Home that he didn’t know her, that “she’s not my sort,” and that she concocted the rape declare to promote her memoir.

Carroll sued once more three years later after Trump referred to as the rape declare a “hoax,” “lie,” “con job” and “full rip-off” in a social media submit.

The second lawsuit additionally features a battery declare underneath New York’s Grownup Survivors Act, which lets sexual abuse victims sue their attackers even when statutes of limitations have run out.

A Washington, D.C. appeals courtroom is deciding whether or not Trump ought to be immune from Carroll’s first lawsuit, however not her second, as a result of he was performing as president when he spoke.

Either side proposed asking that courtroom on April 17 to defer any resolution till the trial is over. A trial may final 5 to seven days, courtroom papers present.

The circumstances are Carroll v. Trump, U.S. District Court docket, Southern District of New York, Nos. 20-07311 and 22-10016.