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Trump Rape Accuser’s Attempts to Serve Complaint Thwarted

Trump Rape Accuser’s Attempts to Serve Complaint Thwarted

(Bloomberg) -- An author and advice columnist who sued President Donald Trump for defamation after he denied raping her two decades ago in a department store dressing room says she’s having no luck serving her complaint at his Trump Tower residence or the White House.

E. Jean Carroll, who went public with her allegations in a June magazine article, said in a court filing on Friday that Secret Service agents thwarted four attempts this week by her process server to deliver the complaint at Trump’s signature skyscraper on 5th Avenue in Manhattan and one attempt at the White House.

During one of the attempts at Trump Tower, a Secret Service agent said they’d been instructed not to allow process servers to leave papers with the concierge, according to the filing. Asked how anyone was supposed to serve Trump with complaints, an agent replied, “I am not going to do your job for you.”

Formally documenting the successful delivery of a complaint to a defendant in a lawsuit is required by law for the case to proceed.

“The intensive security protocols associated with Trump’s status as President of the United States make ‘personal delivery’ to Trump himself virtually impossible,” Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, said in the filing, which seeks a court order allowing her to mail the complaint to the White House and Trump Tower, and email it to a list of his known lawyers.

One of Trump’s lawyers, Marc Kasowitz, didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Stephanie Grisham, the White House press secretary, last week dismissed Carroll’s claim as unbelievable and frivolous.

To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Joe Schneider

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