abcnews.go.com
23.02.2022 / 03:33
Donald Trump's DNA, not deposition sought in defamation suit
Donald Trump of raping her in the mid-1990s and then filed a defamation lawsuit against him said Tuesday she will not seek to depose Trump prior to trial because it would cause unnecessary delay, but she added that a DNA sample was still being sought.Attorney Roberta Kaplan first made the revelation in Manhattan federal court during a pretrial hearing before explaining the decision to reporters outside court as her client, E. Jean Carroll, stood by her side.A deposition, Kaplan said, would “inevitably result in an inordinate amount of delay.”“We want the case to go forward,” she said.Attorney Alina Habba, who represented Trump at the hearing, said outside court that she had not heard before that Carroll's lawyers did not want a deposition, a proceeding in which lawyers in civil cases question likely witnesses under oath prior to trial.“It's surprising,” Habba said.As for a DNA sample, Habba said: “None has been demanded.”Kaplan, though, said the DNA sample had been requested after the case was first filed in state court and the demand still exists after it was moved to federal court.The Associated Press generally does not identify people alleging sexual assault, but Carroll has consented to being named in the media.She told reporters outside court that she was looking forward to the trial on behalf of all women “who have been grabbed and groped, assaulted and raped by men in power and are silenced.”“And we are looking to bring justice, at least in this one case, against a powerful man,” she said.Carroll said she would “never settle, never.”“This is about principle.