Donald Trump holds a press conference at Trump Tower in New York. (Getty)
A lawsuit accusing Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump of raping a 13-year-old girl has been refiled in Manhattan federal court by an attorney.
Thomas Meagher filed the lawsuit against Trump on June 20. The lawsuit was originally filed by Katie Johnson without an attorney in California federal court. The accuser now uses the pseudonym Jane Doe.
It accuses Trump of rape, sexual misconduct, criminal sexual acts, sexual abuse, forcible touching, assault, battery, intentional and reckless infliction of emotional distress, duress and false imprisonment. The accuser is seeking $75,000 in damages, plus attorneys fees.
An initial pre-trial conference scheduled for September 9 was pushed back until October 14.
Meagher, a New Jersey-based patent attorney, told Revelist he heard about the case online and learned that Johnson was searching for an attorney through the website Gossip Extra. He then reached out to the website, which put her in touch with him.
Trump denied the claims after the first lawsuit was filed.
“The allegations are not only categorically false, but disgusting at the highest level and clearly framed to solicit media attention or, perhaps, are simply politically motivated,” Trump told the tabloid website Radar Online, the first publication to report on the lawsuit. “There is absolutely no merit to these allegations. Period.”
Trump is now also being sued for defamation for that statement. Trump’s attorneys have threatened to take action against Meagher over the lawsuit.
The new lawsuit can be read below:
Epstein, a disgraced investment banker, has previously been accused of running a “sexual abuse ring” involving underage girls provided to high-powered clients, including businessmen and politicians, according to The Guardian. Epstein was a friend of President Bill Clinton, whose wife, Hillary Clinton, is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, a topic often mentioned by conservatives:
Bill Clinton and Best Friend Jeffrey Epstein
He was convicted of soliciting an underage girl for prostitution and was sentenced to 13 months in prison.
Trump also has connections to Epstein, according to Buzzfeed.
You can read the original lawsuit below:
The first lawsuit was thrown out by U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Stevenson in May, according to court documents. Stevenson ruled that Johnson “failed to state a civil rights claim” in her lawsuit.
Her listed address is a house in Twentynine Palms, California, that has been foreclosed and is vacant, neighbors told Radar Online. Court documents show that mail sent by the court to Johnson was returned to the sender.
The phone number she lists in the filing is disconnected. It was previously listed as a cell phone number for a California dentist, who could not be reached.
Johnson says in another document that “in 2008 I worked as a free-lance model and earned an average of $200-$300 a month.” No other information about Johnson could be found.
In that document, which you can read below, Johnson claims she is unemployed and has $276 in cash on hand:
Johnson and Meagher could not be reached for comment about the new lawsuit.
The lawsuit has been assigned to Judge Ronnie Abrams and Magistrate Judge James C. Francis IV, according to federal court documents.
