Judge rules Trump must sit for deposition in defamation suit

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that former President Trump will have to answer questions under oath in connection with a defamation lawsuit by a writer who says he raped her in the mid-1990s.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan was in connection with him rejected a request by Trump’s lawyers that the planned testimony be delayed, according to the Associated Press. 

The deposition is now scheduled for Oct. 19.

The suit is being brought by longtime Elle magazine advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, who says Trump raped her in Manhattan department store’s dressing room. Trump has denied the accusation. Carroll is scheduled to be deposed Friday.

“We look forward to establishing on the record that this case is, and always has been, entirely without merit," Trump lawyer Alina Habba said in response to the ruling. Carroll attorney Roberta Kaplan said she was pleased with the ruling, the wire service also reports.  

The judge in his ruling suggest his decision to move forward with the suit is in part because of the "advanced age" of Carroll and Trump, each in the 70s.

Trump reacted to the ruling in a press release, deriding the case itself as a "con job."

"This 'Ms. Bergdorf Goodman' case is a complete con job, and our legal system in this Country, but especially in New York State (just look at Peekaboo James), is a broken disgrace," wrote. "I don’t know this woman, 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. She completely made up a story that I met her at the doors of this crowded New York City Department Store and, within minutes, “swooned” her. It is a Hoax and a lie, just like all the other Hoaxes that have been played on me for the past seven years."

Just the News has reached out to E. Jean Carroll for comment.