An attorney for a woman who claims Donald Trump raped her in the 1990s said in court Tuesday that they’re not seeking a deposition from the former president in her defamation case against him — but they do want a sample of his DNA.
Attorney Roberta Kaplan told Manhattan federal court Judge Lewis Kaplan that she and her client — former advice columnist E. Jean Carroll — are not seeking Trump’s sworn testimony because they want the suit to go to trial without further delay.
“We want his DNA. That’s it,” Kaplan said.
Speaking to reporters in the hallway outside of the courtroom, Kaplan said a deposition would cause an “ inordinate amount of delay.”
An attorney for the former president, Alina Habba, said Kaplan’s decision not to seek a deposition was “surprising” and the first time she had heard of it.
Habba also claimed she was not aware of any request by Carroll’s legal team for a sample of Trump’s DNA.
Kaplan said the request had been made when Carroll first filed the suit in New York state court in 2019 — and remained when it was transferred to federal court a year later.
She added she was confident Trump would be ordered to provide a sample when the suit moves into the discovery phase.
Carroll sued Trump for allegedly making defamatory statements about her after she detailed in a magazine story how he allegedly raped her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in the mid 1990s.
On Tuesday, Carroll told reporters she would “never settle” the lawsuit against the former president.
“This is about principle. This is about a powerful man assaulting and raping a woman and then getting away with it. That’s not right,” Carroll said outside of court.