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, 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.
The lawsuit was brought by Carroll after Trump repeatedly denied the allegations, saying that Carroll is "totally lying" and "not my type".
"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," he said on Wednesday.
Trump on E. Jean Carroll tonight. Ahead of his deposition. He has no defense, just bluster. pic.twitter.com/ig9vNcnN0P
— Anthony Davis (@theanthonydavis) October 13, 2022
The federal lawsuit accuses Trump of defaming Carroll when he claimed she lied and was motivated by selling her book when she said he raped her.
On various occasions, Trump's legal team has tried to delay the lawsuit and prevent him from being questioned by Carroll's attorneys. But, 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.
Now: A NY federal judge denied Donald Trump's bid to delay discovery in writer E. Jean Carroll's defamation case -- incl. his scheduled deposition -- while his appeal is pending.
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) October 12, 2022
Trump "should not be permitted to run the clock out..."
More to come.https://t.co/ri9QlROj22 pic.twitter.com/y8iCQhpmk2
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."
Carroll is scheduled to be deposed on Friday. Her attorney, Roberta Kaplan, praised the judge's ruling and added that Carroll will sue Trump next month under a new New York law that provides adult sexual assault victims the opportunity to file civil lawsuits, even if the statutes of limitations have long expired.
"We look forward to filing our case under the Adult Survivors Act and moving forward to trial with all dispatch," Kaplan said.
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.
One Trump employee told investigators that Trump directed staff to move the boxes after the subpoena was issued in May, according to the Washington Post.
Trump raged over the probe on Truth Social Wednesday night, characterizing the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago as an "unprecedented and unnecessary break in of my home."
"There is no 'crime' having to do with the storage of documents at Mar-a- Lago, only in the minds of the Radical Left Lunatics who are destroying our Country, and were just forced by the Courts to give me back much of what they took (STOLE?) during their unprecedented and unnecessary break in of my home," Trump wrote. "These people are CRAZY!!!"
Trump is under criminal investigation for potential violations relating to obstruction of justice, destruction of federal government records and mishandling classified information.
