President Donald Trump responded to demands that he provide a DNA sample in the defamation lawsuit of author and journalist E. Jean Carroll by claiming that her requests were “burdensome.” He asked the court to delay the proceedings until he is able to fully litigate separate defamation claims brought by former The Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos.
In a New York magazine article last summer, Carroll publicly accused Trump of raping her in New York City department store dressing room two decades ago.
Carroll also claimed that the “Donna Karan coat-dress” she was wearing at the time has been hanging on the back of her closet door and remained “unworn and unlaundered since that evening.” An analysis of the dress revealed the DNA of at least one unidentified male which Carroll’s attorneys want to compare with President Trump.
“I asked for Trump to provide his DNA sample to be tested against the dress I wore when he attacked me,” Carroll wrote Wednesday. “His lawyers replied to my request by seeking to DELAY my lawsuit.”
Zervos claimed Trump sexually assaulted her at Beverly Hills dinner after she appeared on his reality show The Apprentice.
In a 19-page motion filed late Tuesday evening in New York County Supreme Court, Trump’s attorneys asked a Manhattan judge to suspend Carroll’s lawsuit pending a ruling in the Zervos case, which is currently on appeal to the New York Court of Appeals.
“If President Trump is successful on [the Zervos] appeal, this Court would be without jurisdiction to hear this action while President Trump is in office, and that threshold issue should be decided by the Court of Appeals before this action proceeds,” the motion stated. “Like Zervos, this action should be stayed pending that decision. The requested stay here is mandated not only because it would permit resolution of the President’s claim that he is immune from suit in state court while in office, but also because of the unique role of the President under Article II of the Constitution.”
The president’s attorneys also claimed he was immune from any state court lawsuit while in office and therefore was therefore immune to Carroll’s “numerous and burdensome discovery requests,” such as the DNA swab.
“Unidentified male DNA on the dress could prove that Donald Trump not only knows who I am, but also that he violently assaulted me in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman and then defamed me by lying about it and impugning my character,” Carroll said in a statement, according to the Daily Beast. Her attorney said requesting a DNA sample from the accused party in a sexual-assault investigation was “standard operating procedure.”
See below for the full filing from Trump’s attorneys.
Trump Motion- E Jean Carroll v Donald J Trump MEMORANDUM of LAW I 49 by Law&Crime on Scribd
[image via CNN screenshot]