Judge agrees to keep records in Trump defamation lawsuit out of public eye 'for now': report

10 January 2023

Former President Donald Trump has been granted an extension by a federal judge to keep his 34-page deposition sealed from the public in the case of his alleged 1990s rape of writer and ex-Elle journalist, E. Jean Caroll, CNBC reports.

In 2019, Carroll sued Trump for defamation after he publicly denied that he raped her in a Manhattan department store. The writer said Trump defamed her by also denying that he ever met her and alleging that she fabricated her story as a publicity stunt for her book release.

The recently-enacted New York Adult Survivors Act that allows victims to sue for alleged sexual assault from decades prior gave Carroll the green light to file an additional lawsuit in October 2022 following Trump’s “scathing Oct. 12 social media post about her rape claim.” AlterNet previously reported that Carroll is one of nearly two dozen women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct.

Judge Lewis Kaplan noted in his order that Trump’s attorneys did not respond to Carroll’s attorneys in the required three-day window they were given regarding the question of whether the pages should remain “completely sealed" or "partially redacted."

However, the former president’s attorneys asserted in a letter to Kaplan that they were under the impression it was the responsibility of Carroll’s attorneys to answer that question.

Now, they’ve asked Kaplan for three additional days to decide whether they want to keep the pages sealed or partially redacted. The judge granted their request to keep the deposition unsealed "for now."

The trial for Carroll’s original defamation lawsuit is scheduled to take place April 10, and it’s not yet confirmed whether the second October 2022 lawsuit will be included, or will yield a separate trial.

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