‘I will never surrender’: Author who claims Trump raped her responds to former president’s counter-lawsuit

E Jean Carroll says she will ‘never give in’ to former president’s attempts to stop her lawsuit

Former President Donald Trump is reportedly planning to sue E Jean Carroll, the author who accused him of raping her 20 years ago and who is currently suing him for defamation.

Mr Trump asked a federal court in Manhattan on Wednesday if he could file a counterclaim responding to her lawsuit, according to Bloomberg.

Ms Carroll responded to the news on Twitter, vowing she would never give up her case against the former president.

"I will never give up, I will never give in, I will never forget, I will NEVER surrender," she wrote.

Mr Trump is claiming that the lawsuit against him was filed in bad faith.

This is not the first time the former president has countersued a woman accusing him of defamation and sexual assault. In October, he filed a similar counterclaim against Summer Zervos, a former Apprentice contestant who claimed Mr Trump sexually assaulted her and sued him for defamation.

A month after counter-suing, Ms Zervos agreed to drop her lawsuit, but neither she nor Mr Trump have explained why the lawsuit was dropped.

In both instances, Mr Trump is claiming the lawsuits against him violated anti-SLAPP laws. Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation - abbreviated as SLAPP - are meant to protect individuals from having their free speech rights smothered by groups or individuals seeking to drain their financial and time resources using bad faith lawsuits. Anti-SLAPP laws are often used to protect journalists whose stories may expose information about individuals or organisations with substantial legal and financial resources.

Ms Carroll's lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, said the counterclaim was little more than a stalling tactic.

“Trump sat on his hands for a year after the anti-SLAPP law was passed,” Ms Kaplan said. “While Trump may be notorious for using the courts to attack women he has assaulted, his latest gambit will not work – when it comes to E Jean Carroll, the truth will prevail.”

Ms Carroll accused Mr Trump of rape in her 2019 memoir, and is one of more than two dozen women who have accused the former president of sexual assault or harassment. In her book, Ms Carroll claimed Mr Trump raped her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.

After she made the claims, Mr Trump insulted Ms Carroll's looks as "not my type" and claimed she invented the story to help her sell her memoir.

"I am filing this on behalf of every woman who has ever been harassed, assaulted, silenced, or spoken up only to be shamed, fired, ridiculed and belittled," Ms Carroll said in a statement accompanying her filing of the lawsuit. "No person in this country should be above the law – including the president."