Judge rejects Trump's request to have E. Jean Carroll defamation suit dismissed

A New York judge has rejected former President Donald Trump's request to dismiss the rape lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll on grounds that he is entitled to absolute presidential immunity.

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said Thursday that Trump surrendered absolute presidential immunity as a defense by not using it earlier when the suit was first filed.

Kaplan ruled that columnist E. Jean Carroll can continue to make allegations about the former president and is protected by free speech to do so, according to The Associated Press.

Trump is currently suing Carroll for defamation over comments she made on CNN following the verdict in her civil suit against him.

Trump’s suit against Carroll alleges she made the statement "with actual malice and ill will with an intent to significantly and spitefully harm and attack," his reputation, according to NBC News.

Carroll sued Trump for defamation and sexual abuse in 2019 after he denied her allegation that he raped her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman in the 1990s, according to CNN.

Trump said in a Truth Social post that he did not know Carroll and that the suit was “A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!"

Carroll won her civil suit against Trump and was awarded $5 million in damages, though the jury did not find him liable for her alleged rape.