Roberta Kaplan, the attorney for a woman who has accused former President Donald Trump of raping her, said on Tuesday that they did not want to depose the businessman-cum-politician, but would instead be demanding his DNA.
The accuser, E. Jean Carroll, who claims Trump raped her in the mid-1990s, stood by Kaplan’s side as the lawyer made the revelation in a Manhattan federal court during a pretrial hearing.
Kaplan explained her decision outside the courthouse, claiming that attempting to depose Trump prior to trial would cause an “an inordinate amount of delay.” “We want the case to go forward,” she said.
Attorney Alina Habba, who is representing Trump, said in response that the accuser’s lawyers had not requested any DNA, and called their approach “surprising.”
Kaplan rebuffed Habba, stating that the DNA sample had been requested after the case was first filed in state court.
Carroll, who has consented to being named in the media, told reporters the trial was being conducted on behalf of all women “who have been grabbed and groped, assaulted and raped by men in power and are silenced.”
She said she would “never settle,” adding, “This is about principle. It’s about a powerful man assaulting and raping a woman, and then getting away with it. That’s not right.”
Carroll first made her accusations in a 2019 book. She claims the former president raped her in an upscale Manhattan department store.
Trump promptly denied the allegations in a White House press office statement. He questioned Carroll’s credibility and motivations during an Oval Office interview and again in statements to the media as he boarded a helicopter for Camp David.
The former president has requested that the US take his place as a defendant in the lawsuit. The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to rule on his request.
Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over Tuesday’s hearing, ruled in October that Trump cannot be covered by a law protecting federal employees.