(Bloomberg) -- A New York advice columnist who claims President Donald Trump raped her in a dressing room two decades ago said she’ll defer her request for his DNA sample to blunt his claim that her defamation lawsuit puts an unfair burden on the presidency.
E. Jean Carroll, who went public with her claims in June, made the concession at a hearing on Wednesday in Manhattan, where Trump’s lawyers argued the suit is a burden and should be suspended until New York’s highest court decides whether a sitting president can be sued in state court.
The Court of Appeals is weighing that issue in a similar lawsuit by Summer Zervos, a contestant on a Trump reality TV show who claims he sexually assaulted her and defamed her by denying it.
Carroll also agreed to hold off on her request to depose Trump, who denies attacking her.
“This constitutional issue doesn’t just impact the president of the United States currently. It impacts future presidents as well,” Trump’s lawyer, Christine Montenegro, said at the hearing. “The president will suffer irreparable harm” if the suit continues, she said.
New York State Supreme Court Justice Verna Saunders said she’d issue a decision on Trump’s request later.
At the hearing, Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said Carroll was prepared to be deposed by Trump, as are two of her friends with whom she discussed the alleged attack at the time.
Kaplan also argued that the Trump campaign’s recent defamation lawsuit against New York Times Co. contradicts his argument that state court lawsuits are too burdensome to deal with while the president is in office. Kaplan said it’s impossible that the campaign would have filed such a suit without Trump’s direct involvement.
Trump in February alleged that a New York Times opinion column in March 2019 defamed him by saying his 2016 election campaign had agreed with Russia to exchange positive foreign policy for help in defeating his rival, Hillary Clinton.
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