Court hears arguments in Trump rape accuser’s lawsuit

By JENNIFER PELTZ
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Lawyers for former President Donald Trump appeared before a federal appeals court to argue that the U.S. government should take his place as the defendant in a defamation lawsuit filed by a writer who accused him of rape. The Republican’s attorneys told the judges Friday he isn’t trying to dodge personal liability in the lawsuit by the columnist E. Jean Carroll. They say he just wants to keep future presidents from being burdened by legal claims. Carroll sued Trump in 2019, saying he slandered her by denying having raped her in a New York City department store in the 1990s. Trump said she was “totally lying.”