Former President Donald Trump had a meltdown on Truth Social after a judge on Wednesday ordered him to answer questions under oath next week in a defamation lawsuit brought by a writer who alleged that he raped her in the mid-1990s.
Trump’s outburst on his struggling social media startup came hours after U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan rejected a request by Trump’s lawyers to delay the scheduled testimony. The deposition is set for Oct. 19.
Describing the case as “a complete con job”, Trump claimed he did not know E. Jean Carroll, a longtime Elle Magazine writer who accused him of rape at a Manhattan Bergdorf Goodman department store.
“I don’t know this woman, I have no idea who she is, other than it seems she got a picture of me many years ago, with her husband, shaking my hand on a reception line at a celebrity charity event,” Trump wrote on Wednesday.
On various occasions, Trump’s legal team has tried to delay the lawsuit and prevent him from being questioned by Carroll’s attorneys. Judge Kaplan wrote that both Trump, Carroll and other defendants “already are of advanced age,” and it’s time to move forward with the case.
Trump “should not be permitted to run the clock out on [Carroll’s] attempt to gain a remedy for what allegedly was a serious wrong,” he said.
Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba said in a statement: “We look forward to establishing on the record that this case is, and always has been, entirely without merit.”
Trump’s legal team has tried to squash the suit by arguing that the former president was just doing his job when he denied Carroll’s allegations saying “she’s not my type”. The U.S. government could become the defendant in the case if Trump was indeed acting within the scope of his duties as a federal employee.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a split decision last month that Trump was a federal employee when he commented on Carroll’s claims. But now, Trump must wait on a ruling from the D.C. Court of Appeals about whether the comments he made about Carroll occurred during the scope of his employment.
As he awaits their ruling, the former president is facing other legal threats, including a federal probe into classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago residence. Surveillance footage recorded at least one Trump employee moving boxes of sensitive documents at Mar-a-Lago after the Justice Department issued a subpoena demanding the return of classified documents, according to The New York Times.
Trump is currently under criminal investigation for potential violations relating to obstruction of justice, destruction of federal government records and mishandling classified information.
R&I – FS
Captain