A writer who accused Donald Trump of rape filed a lawsuit against the former president moments after a law went into effect extending the deadline for sexual violence survivors to sue for compensation.

Former Elle columnist E Jean Carroll sued the Trump for battery and defamation for an incident she claims happened in 1995 or 1996.

Carroll was able to file the lawsuit due to the Adult Survivors Act, a bill signed into law by New York Governor Kathy Hochul that temporarily removes the statute of limitations for survivors to sue.

‘Thanksgiving Day was the very first day Ms. Carroll could file under New York law so our complaint was filed with the court shortly after midnight,’ Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan said.

Carroll says she met the former president at Manhattan department store Bergdorf Goodman, where he assaulted her in a dressing room. She first publicized the allegations in a memoir published in 2019, which was excerpted in New York magazine.

According to Carroll, Trump ‘opens the overcoat, unzips his pants, and, forcing his fingers around my private area, thrusts his penis halfway – or completely, I’m not certain – inside me.’

In response, Trump claimed that Carroll is ‘totally lying’ to sell books, that he never met her, and that she is ‘not my type.’

After Trump’s response, Carroll filed a lawsuit for defamation, claiming Trump’s comments damaged her reputation and cost her a job writing at Elle.

The case has been tied up in Manhattan courts for years, but now appears to be moving forward. Trump was deposed by attorneys on October 25.

However, Trump has also doubled down on his insistence the assault never happened.

‘She completely made up a story that I met her at the doors of this crowded New York City Department Store and, within minutes, “swooned” her,’ he said on his social media site Truth Social. He also repeated the claim that Carroll is ‘not my type.’

Alina Habba, an attorney representing him in the original defamation suit, called the case ‘totally without merit.’

‘While I respect and admire individuals that come forward, this case is unfortunately an abuse of the purpose of this Act which creates a terrible precedent and runs the risk of delegitimizing the credibility of actual victims,’ Habba stated on Thursday.

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