Latest / Breaking Absurdity — Today's Top Headlines That Can't Be Unheard. Brought to you by @ItsNotSatire. / Woman Sues Trump & Epstein for Assault | Who is Elyse Relford?

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Woman Sues Trump & Epstein for Assault | Who is Elyse Relford? · Breaking Absurdity — Today's Top Headlines That Can't Be Unheard. Brought to you by @ItsNotSatire.

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  Another woman is suing Donald Trump over an alleged
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  sexual assault. And the mainstream media is looking
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  the other way. Her name is Elise Relford. She
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  says the alleged assault happened in a Florida
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  hotel in 1997 with Jeffrey Epstein present. She's
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  also filed a separate federal lawsuit involving
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  Epstein's estate. And predictably, outside a
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  handful of reports, this hasn't exactly been
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  flooding the mainstream news cycle. So let's
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  look at what the court records actually say.
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  And who is Elise Relford? I'll tell you what
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  I found out. Let's start with the lawsuit against
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  Donald Trump. In 2026, Elise Relford filed a
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  civil complaint in Palm Beach County, Florida.
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  The complaint concerns an alleged encounter in
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  Florida in around 1997 involving Relford, Donald
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  Trump, and Jeffrey Epstein. And what she alleges
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  is extraordinarily serious. According to Relford's
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  complaint, she told Trump that her birthday was
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  the following day and that she was disappointed
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  she wouldn't be able to celebrate it. She then
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  alleges that Trump raped her. She says the assault
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  caused vaginal bleeding and severe physical injury.
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  She also alleges that Trump repeatedly impersonated
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  her biological father saying, I'm Manuel. Welford
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  says Trump knew she had been separated from her
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  biological father by Jeffrey Epstein. She further
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  alleges that Trump made a comment about her being
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  a black girl and potentially contracting a disease.
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  And according to her complaint, Epstein responded,
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  she's rich. Those are not facts established by
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  a court. They are Welford's allegations in a
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  civil complaint. That distinction matters. Relford
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  is seeking $1 .3 million in compensatory damages,
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  along with additional damages and costs. The
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  complaint also attempts to bring claims, including
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  sexual battery, intentional infliction of emotional
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  distress, defamation, and harassment. Some of
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  those claims are written with fairly obvious
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  legal uncertainty, including phrases such as,
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  if supported by applicable law and facts, and
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  to the extent recognized under applicable law,
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  which tells us something important. This was
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  filed by a pro se plaintiff, something representing
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  herself rather than by an attorney. and the case
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  encountered a filing problem including the civil
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  cover sheet. That administration issue was widely
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  reported at the time, but that's not the same
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  thing as a judge determining that her allegations
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  were false. There is no finding of fact here
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  establishing that the alleged assault happened.
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  And this is where the story gets considerably
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  more unusual because Trump lawsuit isn't the
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  only case Relford has filed. She's also filed
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  a federal lawsuit in the Southern District of
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  New York against the estate of Jeffrey Epstein.
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  That case was filed on August 11, 2026, and the
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  federal docket identifies the plaintiff as Elise
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  Relford, also identified as Abigail E. Escalona.
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  The complaint makes a series of extraordinary
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  allegations concerning Epstein, Relford's identity,
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  her childhood money, and alleged control over
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  her. According to her complaint, she and Epstein
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  were both connected to the CIA in the late 1980s.
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  She alleges that Epstein gained access to money
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  held in trust for her. She alleges that he redistributed
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  money, concealed her identity, and ultimately
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  took control of her custody. She is seeking approximately
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  $2 .3 million. Again, those are allegations.
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  They have not been established by facts. And
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  when I first started looking at this, there was
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  an obvious question. Are we actually talking
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  about the same Elise Relford? Because if you
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  search online, you'll find plenty of speculation.
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  But I wasn't particularly interested in Reddit
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  speculation. I wanted the paperwork. Ads help
• 3:17
  keep the lights on here at Ed's Not Satire. But
• 3:20
  if ads give you the ick, let me help you with
• 3:22
  that. If you want all the absurdity without the
• 3:24
  ads, subscribe to my sub stack and look for the
• 3:26
  ad free podcast option. The link is in the show
• 3:29
  notes. Now let's get into the absurdity. So I
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  pulled the federal case directly from Pacer.
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  And that's where things get interesting. The
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  federal docket gives Relford's name and a Georgetown,
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  Kentucky address. And among the documents she
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  submitted with the federal complaint is an identification
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  document bearing the name Elise. There is also
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  an envelope in the filing bearing the same Georgetown
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  address listed on the federal docket. I've deliberately
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  obscured the identifying information. The point
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  isn't to publish someone's ID. The point is that
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  the court filing itself provides a documentary
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  connection between the person named in this federal
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  case and the identity we're investigating. And
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  the Florida complaint identifies its plaintiff
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  as Elise Relford from Georgetown, Kentucky. So
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  evidence that these two are separate people gets
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  pretty thin. The much stronger conclusion is
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  that these are filings by the same person. I've
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  also found a public business listing for an Elise
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  Relford operating as a mobile notary in Kentucky.
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  I found a public social media presence using
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  the same name. And yes, I found other public
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  records associated with the name as well. But
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  here's where I want to draw a line. Just because
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  information is publicly accessible doesn't mean
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  it belongs in a story. This is a person making
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  allegations of sexual assault. I'm not going
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  to publish her phone number. I'm not going to
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  publish her home address. I'm not going to turn
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  her social media account into a slideshow of
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  personal photographs. And I'm not going to make
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  an unrelated arrest record. the centerpiece of
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  the story simply because I happen to find it.
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  The question is, what can we actually establish
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  about these lawsuits? Those are very different
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  questions. Here's what we can establish from
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  the public record. Elise Relford has filed federal
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  lawsuit against the estate of Jeffrey Epstein.
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  She has also filed a Florida lawsuit against
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  Donald Trump. These two filings identify the
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  plaintiff as Elise Relford. The federal docket
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  provides and identity and address connection
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  that strongly links the two cases. The Florida
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  complaint contains allegations of rape and sexual
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  assault dating to approximately 1997. The federal
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  complaint contains much broader allegations involving
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  Epstein, Relford's identity, money, and custody.
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  The Florida filing encountered a reported administrative
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  problem involving its civil cover sheet. And
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  the federal case is a separate proceeding in
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  the Southern District of New York. Those things
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  are documents, those things are records, those
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  things we can verify. What we can't establish
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  from these filings is whether the allegations
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  are true. We don't have a judicial finding that
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  Trump committed the alleged assault. We don't
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  have a judicial finding establishing the extraordinary
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  allegations in the Epstein complaint. And the
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  fact that someone submits a document as an exhibit
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  doesn't automatically mean a court has authenticated
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  every fact contained in it. That's where responsible
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  reporting has to stop pretending certainty exists
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  when it doesn't. because there are really two
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  stories here. There's the story of the allegations,
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  and then there's the story of what can be independently
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  corroborated. And right now, we have to be honest
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  about what we actually have. We have the allegations.
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  We have the person making those allegations.
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  We have a Reddit thread. And at the same time,
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  I'm making this video literally two news reports
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  covering this story. That's not exactly an overwhelming
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  body of independent evidence. And there's another
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  problem that I can't currently explain. There
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  appears to be a massive date conflict in the
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  account presented in the federal lawsuit. One
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  of the identification documents submitted with
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  the federal filing gives Elisa's date of birth
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  is 1992. But in that same complaint, she alleges
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  she was working with Jeffrey Epstein and others
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  in the CIA in the late 1980s. If the date on
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  that identification document is accurate, Elise
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  wouldn't have even been born yet when those events
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  took place. I don't know how those two things
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  are supposed to fit together. Maybe there's an
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  explanation. Maybe the document isn't what it
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  appears to be. Maybe there's something about
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  the timeline that we don't yet understand. But
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  right now... I don't know. And that's exactly
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  why I'm not going to fill in the gap with speculation.
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  I've reached out to Elise directly and given
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  her an opportunity to respond to these questions.
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  At the time of publishing, I haven't heard back.
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  If she does respond, I'll update you because
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  I'll be following this story. And ultimately,
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  there are really two stories here. There's a
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  story of the allegations themselves, and then
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  there's the story of what can actually be independently
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  corroborated. Those are not necessarily the same
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  thing. There's another obvious legal question
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  here, the statute of limitations. Relford says
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  the alleged assault happened in Florida in 1997.
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  She filed this lawsuit in 2026, roughly 29 years
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  later. Florida's normal limitation period for
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  assault and battery claims is four years. So
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  how can this case be filed nearly three decades
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  later? The obvious comparison is E. Jean Carroll.
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  Carroll's assault by Trump also happened back
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  in the 1990s, but New York passed the Adult Survivors
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  Act, temporarily allowing survivors to bring
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  certain expired sexual assault claims. But that
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  was New York. Relford's case is in Florida, involving
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  an alleged assault in Florida. So Carroll doesn't
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  automatically solve the statute of limitations
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  problem here. There may be legal arguments or
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  exceptions that apply, but from the complaint
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  itself, it isn't clear what they are. And that's
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  another major unanswered question in this case.
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• 8:23
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• 8:26
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• 8:28
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• 8:30
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