New York
Trump rape accuser plans suit under new NY ‘survivors’ law
NEW YORK (AP) — A writer who accused former President Donald Trump of raping her in a department store dressing room intends to file another lawsuit against him under a new New York law letting sexual assault victims sue over attacks that happened decades ago.
A lawyer for the columnist, E. Jean Carroll, notified a federal judge of her intent to sue in an August letter entered in the public record Tuesday. The suit would allege sexual battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
In the letter, the lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, also said she plans to depose Trump in the defamation case that Carroll already had pending against the former president. The deposition would have to occur by Oct. 19, when discovery in the case must be completed for a planned February trial.
Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In an Aug. 11 letter to the court that was also posted in the public file Tuesday, she objected to the new lawsuit.
Habba wrote that letting Carroll file the new claim now “would be extraordinarily prejudicial” to Trump, given the looming trial deadlines in the defamation case.
“To permit Plaintiff to drastically alter the scope and subject matter of this case at such time would severely prejudice Defendant’s rights. Therefore, Plaintiff’s request must be disregarded in its entirety,” Habba said.
Kaplan declined to comment.
Carroll, a longtime advice columnist for Elle magazine, wrote in a 2019 book that Trump raped her during a chance encounter at a Bergdorf Goodman store in the mid-1990s. Trump denied it and questioned Carroll’s credibility and motivations.
Because the alleged attack happened so long ago, Carroll would ordinarily have missed legal deadlines to sue Trump. So she initially sued him instead for defamation, saying he smeared her reputation while denying the rape allegation.
Last spring, however, New York lawmakers passed the Adult Survivor’s Act, which provides a one-year “look back” that enables adult survivors of sexual attacks to bring civil claims when they otherwise would be barred.
The law, signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul in May, was modeled after the Child Victims Act, which provided a similar window to bring lawsuits for people who had been sexually assaulted when they were children. That law expired a year ago.
A deposition would require Trump to answer questions from Carroll’s lawyers under oath about her allegations. Carroll’s legal team in February had said they were willing to skip a deposition in order to get the lawsuit to trial more quickly. Kaplan, in her letter to the court, said she now needed to question Trump because his lawyers had turned over so few documents relevant to the case.
In her letter to the court, Habba made no mention of the plans to depose Trump, but she did complain that Kaplan’s letter was “filled with misrepresentations and inflammatory statements.”
Maine
Fishermen appeal judge ruling that protects endangered whale
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The state of Maine and a fishing group are appealing a federal judge’s decision that new rules intended to protect endangered whales must stand.
The judge earlier this month denied a request from fishermen to stop federal regulators from placing the new restrictions on lobster fishing. The rules are intended to protect North Atlantic right whales, which number less than 340.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills and the Maine Lobstermen’s Association said this week they’re appealing that decision. Lobstermen have long contended the new rules are based on flawed data and are too punitive to the fishing industry.
The fishermen sued the National Marine Fisheries Service in its lawsuit. The fishing group is “escalating its fight to save Maine’s lobstering heritage from a plan that the agency itself admits is not needed for the species to survive,” said Patrice McCarron, executive director of the lobstermen’s association.
The whales are vulnerable to entanglement in fishing gear and have been listed as endangered since 1970. In recent years, the baleen whales’ population has declined even further, with the latest data estimating there are fewer than 100 breeding females in the wild, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The state and the fishermen have appealed their case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Ohio
Court: Election denier can run for secretary of state
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A conservative podcaster who embraces former President Donald Trump’s discredited claims of a stolen 2020 election is eligible to run for Ohio secretary of state this fall, the state’s high court ruled Tuesday.
Terpeshore “Tore” Maras, who calls President Joe Biden “resident not president” and embraces aspects of the QAnon conspiracy in her “Tore Says” podcast, will appear on ballots as an independent.
She faces Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose and Democratic challenger Chelsea Clark.
The Ohio Supreme Court split 4-2 in its ruling, with Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, a Republican, joining the court’s three Democrats, Justices Pat DeWine and Pat Fischer dissenting and Justice Sharon Kennedy not participating.
The decision marks the latest twist in Maras’ rollercoaster bid to seek the office overseeing Ohio elections. She previously met the deadline to run as a Republican candidate for the ballot back in February, but fell short of the required valid signatures.
LaRose’s office later cleared her to run as an independent, but a Republican official — acting in his capacity as an Ohio voter — filed a challenge, asserting a number of her signatures were invalid. A judge ruled in the official’s favor and LaRose’s office upheld that decision and invalidated her candidacy.
She sued, alleging more of the voter signatures she submitted as an independent should be counted as valid and that LaRose’s office didn’t follow their own procedures for counting her signatures. The court’s majority agreed that LaRose’s office “acted in clear disregard of the applicable law when he refused to count the additional verified signatures” Maras had submitted.
In his dissent, DeWine said Maras’ court filing failed to meet a host of technical requirements, making it invalid.
Pennsylvania
DA: 10 students face juvenile court charges for hazing
MIDDLETOWN, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania prosecutor announced charges in juvenile court Tuesday against 10 students in connection with alleged hazing of high school football players that prompted cancellation of the team’s season.
Dauphin County prosecutors said two Middletown players will face attempted sexual assault charges and eight others face other counts in connection with hazing that authorities said targeted at least six players from ages 14 to 17.
“This investigation did not involve just hazing or ‘boys will be boys’ conduct,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Gettle said in a news release from the office of District Attorney Fran Chardo. “Rather, two of these individuals committed repeated sexual assaults and encouraged others to participate under the guise of hazing.”
Superintendent Chelton Hunter earlier said team members had been in the high school turf room used for heat acclimation practice sessions when an Aug. 11 cellphone video showed “a group of students restraining two of their teammates and using a muscle therapy gun and another piece of athletic equipment” to poke their buttock areas.
The players remained fully clothed and no penetration appeared to have occurred, he said, calling the video difficult to watch and the acts “completely unacceptable, offensive, and highly inappropriate.”
Two 17-year-old students face charges of criminal attempt to commit involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, unlawful restraint, simple assault, and hazing. A 16-year-old was charged with unlawful restraint, simple assault, and hazing; three students — one age 17 and two age 16 — with unlawful restraint and hazing; and four others, two age 16 and two age 17 — with violating the hazing statute, authorities said.
The head football coach resigned within days of the video surfacing. School officials last month said they had decided to cancel the 2022 football season after learning there was a second video and that the number of players involved was larger than initially believed.
Texas
Judge dismisses disciplinary case against state AG’s deputy
DALLAS (AP) — A Texas judge has thrown out a lawsuit that the state bar brought seeking to discipline the top deputy to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over the Republican’s failed effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election based on bogus claims of fraud. A similar case against Paxton remains pending in another court.
Judge John Youngblood dismissed the case against First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster with prejudice last week, ruling that his court lacks jurisdiction over the petition brought by State Bar of Texas under the “separation of powers doctrine.”
The ruling is a partial victory for Paxton as he seeks a third term as Texas’ top lawyer against Democratic challenger Rochelle Garza.
“I am glad that the court dismissed these utterly meritless charges against my first assistant and sent the clear message that I work for Texas, not for unelected bureaucrats at the State Bar,” Paxton said in a Tuesday statement.
The bar last year began investigating complaints over Paxton’s lawsuit that sought to block President Joe Biden’s election victory. In May, it asked separate courts to impose unspecified discipline on Paxton and Webster, alleging that their petitioning of the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse Donald Trump’s defeat was “dishonest.”
The high court threw out the 2020 case and Trump’s own Justice Department found no evidence of fraud that could have changed the election’s outcome.
A spokesman for the bar, which is an arm of the Texas Supreme Court, declined to comment or say whether it will appeal.
Youngblood, a Milam County Republican, appears to have accepted the argument from the attorney general’s office that because it is an executive branch agency and the bar is part of the judicial branch, the case against Webster ran afoul of the state constitution. It remains to be seen whether the same argument will be persuasive to the Dallas-area judge hearing the case against Paxton.
