E. Jean Carroll, a writer for Elle magazine, Thursday filed an amended lawsuit against former President Donald Trump, minutes after New York’s Adult Survivor’s Act went into effect. She previously filed a defamation suit against Trump in 2019 for statements he made against her when she publicly accused him of sexual assault.
In the amended lawsuit, Carroll sues Trump for battery regarding the alleged rape in 1995 and defamation regarding the alleged false and degrading statements he made against Carroll on social media and in the press in the years following her claim that he raped her.
Carroll brings civil action under the act against Trump for her alleged rape committed by Trump in a New York City department store dressing room in 1995. In the complaint, Carroll stated that she did not report the rape at the time because she feared Trump would “ruin her life and livelihood” if she did.
New York’s Adult Survivor’s Act went into effect Thursday, allowing survivors of sexual assault or abuse who were 18 years or older at the time to file a civil lawsuit against their abuser past the state’s statute of limitations. The act was signed into law by Governor Kathy Hochul in May and amends the statute of limitations for civil actions related to sexual offenses committed against adults in the State of New York. Under the act, civil actions which were previously barred by the statute of limitations are now revived. Survivors now have a one-year window to file the allowed civil actions for cases of sexual assault for which they previously could not file suit past the time limitation placed on the crime.