A New York federal judge on Monday delayed the unsealing of a portion of former\u00a0President Trump\u2019s\u2002deposition from a defamation lawsuit brought by\u00a0E. Jean Carroll,\u00a0who accused him of raping her in the mid-1990s.
\nEarlier Monday, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan\u00a0initially ordered the unsealing\u00a0of 34 pages from the\u00a0testimony Trump gave in October\u00a0in the defamation case. Just hours later,\u00a0Kaplan granted\u00a0a\u00a0request by Trump\u2019s team\u00a0to delay the release for three more days to give them more time to file an objection to the unsealing of the deposition.
\nKaplan said in his initial order that Trump\u2019s lawyers failed to respond to Carroll\u2019s lawyers within a three-day window on the question of whether the sealed pages should remain completely sealed or partially sealed. The\u00a0question brought by Carroll\u2019s lawyers\u00a0on whether the deposition could be unsealed was filed in mid-December.
\nTrump\u2019s attorneys said they did not file a formal objection to the unsealing because they misunderstood a previous order given by the judge. They said they had thought the \u201cburden\u201d to explain why the unsealing of the deposition was necessary fell on Carroll\u2019s team, not Trump\u2019s, and subsequently asked for three extra days to file a formal objection to the unsealing.
\nCarroll filed a lawsuit against Trump in 2019, alleging that he defamed her by casting doubts on her credibility and making comments about her appearance. Trump sat for the deposition last fall, after he repeatedly\u00a0tried to delay the case.
\nIn November, Carroll\u00a0filed a second lawsuit\u00a0against Trump for the alleged sexual assault that took place in either 1995 or 1996, after a new New York law was enacted. She alleged that Trump raped her in a Manhattan department store. Trump has denied this happened, including in a 2019 interview with The Hill in which Trump said Carroll was \u201ctotally lying\u201d and \u201cnot my type.\u201d
\nUnder the new New York\u2019s Adult Survivors Act, survivors of sexual assault can file a legal claim within a one-year window, even if the statute of limitations has passed. Those who file a claim must have been over 18 years old when the alleged crime occurred.
\nTrump\u2019s lawyers\u00a0argued to the top D.C. court\u2002Tuesday that his statements about the defamation case were a part of his role as president. If Trump\u2019s statements during his time as president are ruled to fall under the protection of law, the Carroll\u2019s defamation lawsuit will likely not succeed.<\/p>\n