E. Jean Carroll filed the new lawsuit after the Adult Survivor’s Act took effect in New York
(Picture: AP)A writer who accused Donald Trump of raping her has filed an upgraded lawsuit against him in New York.
E. Jean Carroll’s lawyer filed the legal papers on Thursday minutes after a new state law took effect allowing victims of sexual violence to sue over attacks that occurred decades ago.
The Adult Survivor’s Act temporarily lifts the state’s usual deadlines for suing over sexual assault.
In her new claims, Carroll maintains that Mr Trump committed battery “when he forcibly raped and groped her” and that he defamed her when he denied raping her last month.
The longtime advice columnist for Elle magazine is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for pain and suffering, psychological harms, dignity loss and reputation damage.
The writer first made the claim in a 2019 book, accusing Mr Trump of raping her in the dressing room of a Manhattan luxury department store in 1995 or 1996.
Mr Trump responded to the book’s allegations by saying it could never have happened because Carroll was “not my type.”
His remarks led Carroll to file a defamation lawsuit against him, but that lawsuit has been tied up in appeals courts as judges decide whether he is protected from legal claims for comments made while he was president.
Previously, Carroll had been barred by state law from suing over the alleged rape because too many years had passed since the incident.
New York’s new law, however, gives sex crime victims who missed deadlines associated with statute of limitations a second chance to file a lawsuit. A window for such suits will open for one year, after which the usual time limits will be reinstated.
At least hundreds of lawsuits are expected, including many filed by women who say they were assaulted by co-workers, prison guards, medical providers or others.
In her new claims, Carroll maintains that Mr Trump committed battery “when he forcibly raped and groped her” and that he defamed her when he denied raping her last month.
Mr Trump said in his statement that Carroll “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.”
