A US federal judge has scheduled the writer E. Jean Carroll’s second defamation trial against former president Donald Trump for January.

District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan on Thursday said the civil trial, where the former Elle magazine columnist is seeking at least $US10 million ($15 million) in damages, will began on January 15, 2024, “unless this case has previously been entirely disposed of”.

The timetable raises the prospect that Mr Trump might have to defend himself in three trials early next year as he seeks the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, where he is the frontrunner.

Mr Trump has been criminally charged by federal prosecutors in Florida with mishandling classified documents, and by Manhattan’s district attorney with covering up hush money payments to a porn star. He has pleaded not guilty in both cases.

Ms Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan, who is not related to the judge, said her client looks forward to moving expeditiously on her claims.

A lawyer for Mr Trump and a spokeswoman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Ms Carroll claims that Mr Trump defamed her in June 2019 when he denied having raped her in the mid-1990s in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan, and said she was not his type.

Last month, a Manhattan jury ordered Mr Trump to pay Ms Carroll $US5 million ($7.3 million) for defamation and sexual assault in a separate lawsuit, after he made a similar denial in October 2022.

On Tuesday, Judge Kaplan allowed Ms Carroll to amend her lawsuit over Mr Trump’s 2019 comments to include similar comments he made recently on CNN.

In a town hall the day after the $US5 million ($7.3 million) verdict, Mr Trump called Carroll’s account “fake” and labelled her a “whack job”.

– AAP