A woman who alleges that GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump raped her at a party in 1994 — when she was just 13 years old — will get her day in a Manhattan courtroom, but not until well after the voters have gone to the polls.
The case is a civil lawsuit, not a criminal action, in which the woman claims Mr. Trump and billionaire Jeffrey Epstein assaulted her at a series of sex parties that Epstein threw in 1994, the Daily News reported Wednesday.
U.S. District Court Judge Ronnie Abrams — an Obama appointee to the federal bench confirmed overwhelmingly by the Senate — set a Dec. 16 court date, giving parties to the lawsuit time a deadline for their pretrial strategies or crafting an out-of-court settlement. The Electoral College will sit three days later, voting in all 50 state capitals and the District of Columbia to officially decide the presidency.
Mr. Trump has categorically denied the allegations, and Trump attorney Alan Garten dismissed the suit as “a completely manufactured claim” that was “designed to discredit my client and interfere with the election.”
The legal development comes as Mr. Trump has been hitting Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail as an enabler of her husband’s infidelities and alleged sexual misconduct, including Juanita Broaddrick’s allegation that the then-Arkansas attorney general raped her in 1978.
Mr. Clinton was separately alleged in a 2014 lawsuit against Mr. Epstein to have been present at sex parties thrown by the billionaire, who is a registered sex offender.
• Ken Shepherd can be reached at kshepherd@washingtontimes.com.
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