E. Jean Carroll to sue Trump for battery under new sexual misconduct law

E. Jean Carroll, the author who alleges that former President Trump raped her in the mid-1990s, plans to sue him for battery under a new state law, according to court filings made public Tuesday.

Why it matters: Carroll, who is in the middle of a high-profile defamation suit against Trump, had been unable to pursue legal action for the actual alleged assault due to the state's statute of limitations. Now the Adult Survivors Act, which gives adult survivors of sexual misconduct a one-year window to sue their abusers regardless of when the incident occurred, could give her another chance against her alleged abuser.

Driving the news: Carroll's lawyer Roberta A. Kaplan wrote in an August letter to a New York federal judge that she will sue Trump for battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress "on the earliest possible date," which is Nov. 24.

• Carroll's team has requested a deposition to question Trump under oath. He "remains unwilling to produce" any court-mandated evidence, Kaplan said.
• Kaplan has asked to consolidate Carroll's defamation case with her expected suit under the Adult Survivors Act.

Trump's lawyer Alina Habba responded by asking the judge to reject the request, which she said would be "extraordinarily prejudicial" to Trump.

• She also denied that Trump has failed to produce evidence and defended his use of "executive privilege" — a recurring tactic of his — to avoid handing over documents related to his verbal attacks on her character while he was president.

The big picture: The former president has maintained that he did not rape Carroll, who sued him for defamation in 2019 after he branded her a liar.

• Trump, who faced a litany of sexual misconduct allegations during his campaign run in 2016, lost his bid to countersue earlier this year.
• Representatives for Carroll and Trump did not immediately respond to requests for comment.