A federal judge has rejected former President Donald Trump's request that he dismiss a New York columnist's defamation claims against him on grounds that he is entitled to absolute presidential immunity. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said Thursday that writer E. Jean Carroll can proceed with her claims that Trump owes her at least $10 million in compensatory damages and substantially more in punitive damages for comments he made after she won a $5 million sexual abuse and defamation verdict against him. After that verdict was returned early last month in Manhattan federal court, he repeated comments he'd made in 2019 when Carroll first made her allegations.
