Manhattan federal court Judge Lewis Kaplan has struck Donald Trump's attempt to countersue writer E. Jean Carroll, who earlier accused the former president of rape. Kaplan stated that Trump's countersuit had the only goal of delaying the defamation lawsuit that Carroll filed against Trump.
Carroll and Trump are currently locked in a legal battle that the writer initiated after the former POTUS called her a "liar" over claims he raped her in a dressing room of New York's Bergdorf Goodman department store in the middle of the 1990s.
Judge Kaplan noted that approving Trump's countersuit bid would open "new avenues for significant further delay" in a case that has already been open for around three years.
"The record convinces this court that the defendant's litigation tactics, whatever their intent, have delayed the case to an extent that readily could have been far less", the judge said according to court filings.
Kaplan said that Trump's previous legal actions as well as threats of future ones can be described as "dilatory, in bad faith, or unduly prejudicial" – all at the same time. The judge added that the case "could have been tried and decided long ago".
Trump's bid to countersue Carrol reportedly put the writer's defamation lawsuit on hold. It is unclear if the case will now be able to proceed and whether Trump's legal team plans to appeal Judge Kaplan's decision.
The ex-president's legal defence insisted that the defamation lawsuit had to be dropped because it was filed in 2019, when Trump still occupied the Oval Office. That year writer E. Jean Carroll published excerpts from her upcoming book "What Do We Need Men For: A Modest Proposal?" in the New York magazine – including the part, where she accused Trump of raping her. The former POTUS insisted he had never met her. At the same time, New York magazine published a photo that shows Trump and Carroll together in 1987.
Let's stay in touch no matter what! Follow our Telegram channel to get all the latest news: https://t.me/sputniknewsus