NEW YORK —

Former President Donald Trump's claims that absolute presidential immunity and free speech rights shield him from the defamation claims of a New York columnist were rejected Thursday by a federal judge.

The writer, E. Jean Carroll, can continue to press claims that Trump owes her at least $10 million in damages for comments he made before and after she won a $5 million sexual abuse and defamation verdict against him last month, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said in a written opinion.

Trump tried to dismiss the lawsuit on grounds that he is entitled to absolute presidential immunity, his statements were not defamatory and that his statements were opinion protected by free speech rights.

Kaplan said Trump surrendered absolute presidential immunity as a defense by failing to assert it years ago when the lawsuit was filed. The lawsuit was delayed until recently as appeals courts considered legal issues surrounding it.

Trump countersued Carroll this week, claiming that she has libeled him by continuing to insist that he raped her even after a jury found otherwise.

After a jury returned its verdict last month in Manhattan federal court, Trump made comments on a CNN town hall that prompted Carroll to assert new defamation claims in a 2020 defamation lawsuit.

The jury award resulted from a sexual abuse and defamation lawsuit filed last November after New York state temporarily enacted a law allowing sexual assault victims to sue for damages resulting from attacks that occurred even decades earlier.

Trump's claims in the CNN broadcast mirrored statements he made while president in 2019 when Carroll published a memoir in which she claimed Trump raped her in the dressing room of a luxury midtown Manhattan department store in spring 1996.

Within hours of excerpts from the book being published in a magazine, Trump denied a rape occurred or that he ever knew Carroll.

"Mr. Trump did not merely deny Ms. Carroll's accusation of sexual assault," Kaplan wrote. "Instead, he accused Ms. Carroll of lying about him sexually assaulting her in order to increase sales of her book, gain publicity, and/or carry out a political agenda."

The judge said the main purpose of presidential immunity was to avoid diverting the president from public duties, but it was not a "get-out-of-damages-liability-free card that permits the president to say or do anything he or she desires even if that conduct is disconnected entirely from an official function."

Kaplan said he took into consideration that Carroll is now 79 years old and has pursued claims against Trump for 3 1/2 years.

"There is no basis to risk prolonging the resolution of this litigation further by permitting Mr. Trump to raise his absolute immunity defense now at the eleventh hour when he could have done so years ago," he said.

In rejecting claims that Carroll's lawsuit was about protected speech, Kaplan explained how libel and slander are handled in the courts and why Trump's statements could be construed to fit the legal definition for defamation, including that a jury had already found it so.

Trump's lawyers did not immediately comment.

Attorney Robbie Kaplan, who represents Carroll and is unrelated to the judge, said in a statement that the judge's ruling "confirms that once again, Donald Trump's supposed defenses to E. Jean Carroll's defamation claims don't work."

She added: "Today's decision removes one more impediment to the January 15 trial on E Jean's defamation damages in this case."

The Associated Press typically does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Carroll has done.

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ah! Historic march through the halls of the U. S. Capitol, nearly three weeks after a deadly insurrection took place within its walls. Nine House impeachment managers delivering a single article of impeachment to the Senate Monday night, formally beginning the second impeachment trial against former President Donald Trump, Donald John Trump, president of the United States, is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors. 10 House Republicans joined House Democrats last week to charge Trump with incitement of insurrection, saying he encouraged a violent mob to storm the U. S Capitol January 6th in an effort to overturn the election results. We fight like hell, and if you don't fight like hell, you're not gonna have a country anymore. The House also pointing to Trump's phone call with Georgia's secretary of state earlier this month, asking him to find votes to reverse Trump's loss. In all this, President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government. Senators will be sworn in as jurors later today, and a trial will begin the week of February 8th. The timeline allowing Trump's team to prepare and space to confirm President Joe Biden's Cabinet nominees. It's not going to be easy to manage all these things at once, but it's absolutely imperative. Biden telling CNN he's doubtful there are enough Republicans willing to convict Trump. But he also believes the impeachment trial has toe happen despite the effect it could have on advancing his agenda. I believe we will put forward a very strong case. That, of course, is already in the public view of what took place here. Even with the bipartisan passing of the article in the House, many Republicans opposed the trial against Trump. It seems very, very much counterproductive if you're the by President Biden to say we're going to take the precious first days of a new administration and we're gonna squander it on this impeachment trial. The trial moving forward as the Justice Department's internal watchdog launched an investigation looking into whether any DOJ officials participated in attempts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election. The probe, after news reports indicated Trump may have attempted to use the DOJ to challenge the election results in a plan that sources say included ousting acting attorney General Jeffrey Rosen. Anyone that is trying Thio approach this with a you know, any kind of open mindedness, it seems like the evidence keeps mounting

Video above: Historic second impeachment case against Donald Trump now in the U.S. Senate's handsFormer President Donald Trump on Sunday named two lawyers to his impeachment defense team, one day after it was revealed that he had parted ways with an earlier set of attorneys.The two lawyers representing him will be David Schoen, an Alabama attorney, and Bruce Castor, a former prosecutor in Pennsylvania.Trump's team revealed Saturday that several South Carolina lawyers who were set to represent him at the trial starting next week were no longer participating.Trump, the first president in American history to be impeached twice, is set to stand trial in the Senate on a charge that he incited his supporters to storm Congress on Jan. 6 as lawmakers met to certify Joe Biden’s electoral victory.Republicans and Trump aides have made clear that they intend to make a simple argument in the trial: Trump’s trial is unconstitutional because he is no longer in office. Legal scholars say there is no bar to an impeachment trial despite Trump having left the White House.“The Democrats’ efforts to impeach a president who has already left office is totally unconstitutional and so bad for our country," Trump adviser Jason Miller has said.

WASHINGTON —

Video above: Historic second impeachment case against Donald Trump now in the U.S. Senate's hands

Former President Donald Trump on Sunday named two lawyers to his impeachment defense team, one day after it was revealed that he had parted ways with an earlier set of attorneys.

The two lawyers representing him will be David Schoen, an Alabama attorney, and Bruce Castor, a former prosecutor in Pennsylvania.

Trump's team revealed Saturday that several South Carolina lawyers who were set to represent him at the trial starting next week were no longer participating.

Trump, the first president in American history to be impeached twice, is set to stand trial in the Senate on a charge that he incited his supporters to storm Congress on Jan. 6 as lawmakers met to certify Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

Republicans and Trump aides have made clear that they intend to make a simple argument in the trial: Trump’s trial is unconstitutional because he is no longer in office. Legal scholars say there is no bar to an impeachment trial despite Trump having left the White House.

“The Democrats’ efforts to impeach a president who has already left office is totally unconstitutional and so bad for our country," Trump adviser Jason Miller has said.