NEW YORK _ President Donald Trump's lawyers are trying to delay an advice columnist's defamation suit against him until New York's highest court rules on a similar suit from an "Apprentice" contestant.
Columnist E. Jean Carroll's attorneys filed a motion last week seeking Trump's DNA to prove she was not lying when she said Trump raped her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.
But Trump's lawyers, who are fighting off a lawsuit from former "Apprentice" contestant Summer Zervos, have argued that an incumbent president can't be sued in state courts, and they are asking the state high court to decide.
"That threshold issue should be decided" before Carroll's case goes any further, Trump lawyer Marc Kasowitz wrote.
If a court agrees, Carroll's suit would be on hold for months.
"I asked for Trump to provide his DNA sample to be tested against the dress I wore when he attacked me," Carroll, 75, tweeted. "His lawyers replied to my request by seeking to DELAY my lawsuit. What is @realDonaldTrump afraid of?"
Trump has denied the allegation and accused Carroll of inventing it to boost sales of her book. He said she was "totally lying," and that he had "never met this person in my life." He said Carroll was "not my type."
Carroll sued Trump in November, saying he smeared her and hurt her career as a longtime Elle magazine advice columnist by calling her a liar. She is seeking unspecified damages and a retraction.
