Roberta Kaplan. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

Roberta Kaplan detailed what she framed as several months of "foot-dragging" from President Donald Trump in court filings Tuesday, as she argued against the president's motion for a stay in her client's defamation suit.

Kaplan, of Kaplan Hecker & Fink, represents author and advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, who has accused Trump of sexually assaulting her at the Manhattan department store Bergdorf Goodman in the 1990s.

Trump has forcefully denied the allegation, denied knowing Carroll and implied she had falsely accused other men of rape, according to the lawsuit Carroll filed in Manhattan Supreme Court in November.

While arguing in support of Trump's motion for a stay earlier this month, Marc Kasowitz of Kasowitz Benson Torres asked the court to wait while the New York Court of Appeals makes a decision in another pending defamation case, Zervos v. Trump.

Kasowitz wrote that constitutional issues, including whether the president is immune from suits in state courts while in office, must be decided before Carroll's case could move forward.

In Tuesday's filing, Kaplan criticized the Trump defense team for tying the case to Zervos after previously arguing they were unrelated.

Delays in the case harm Carroll's reputation and her livelihood as an advice columnist, Kaplan wrote. She also dismissed the constitutional defense, arguing that Trump's "mere status as president" does not entitle him to a stay.

Overall, Kaplan argued, Trump's motion for a stay is "just the latest example in a clear pattern of delay in this litigation."

Carroll had significant issues even trying to serve Trump with her complaint, Kaplan wrote.

"A process server went to Trump Tower on four different occasions, at different times, and building staff and Secret Service agents blocked each attempt at service," Kaplan wrote. "On one occasion, a Secret Service agent informed the process server that they 'had been instructed not to allow process servers' to effect service."

Another process server was told he wouldn't be allowed to leave Trump Tower if he left papers with the concierge, and that "papers have to go to D.C.," Kaplan wrote, but a Secret Service agent also turned away a process server who went to the White House.

A Manhattan judge eventually allowed Carroll to serve Trump by mailing papers to Trump Tower and the White House and by emailing papers to six attorneys at five different firms, all of which had represented him in various matters.

Before filing the current motion for a stay, Trump argued that his residence in the White House since 2017 meant he was not subject to personal jurisdiction in New York.

Lawyers for Trump listed in court papers, including Kasowitz and LaRocca Hornik Rosen & Greenberg's Lawrence Rosen and Patrick McPartland, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

Kaplan is also the co-founder of the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund, which raises money to support victims of workplace sexual harassment.

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