After E. Jean Carroll accused Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her decades earlier in a department store dressing room, he called her a liar; he also accused her of just trying to sell a “crummy book” and damage him politically as part of a Democratic Hoax. That began in 2019, but his assertions continued for four years. Carroll sued Trump in New York state court in 2019, but the case was then removed to federal court by then-Attorney General Bill Barr, and then traveling to the Second Circuit and DC Court of Appeals to determine whether Trump’s statements were part of his official presidential duties. They were not.

In the meantime, Carroll sued Trump again in 2022, alleging sexual battery under New York’s newly enacted Adult Survivors Act, as well as defamation based on Trump’s October 2022 statement repeating his 2019 allegations, almost verbatim.