E Jean Carroll is seen in New York. Photograph: Craig Ruttle/AP

Donald Trump’s lawyers asked a judge on Friday to throw out an advice columnist’s defamation lawsuit over his response to her allegation that he raped her in the 1990s.

The president’s lawyers argue E Jean Carroll’s suit cannot go forward in a New York state court because his statements were made in Washington.

New York law does not allow for defamation suits over statements made elsewhere, except in circumstances Carroll’s case does not meet, Trump lawyer Lawrence S Rosen wrote. He did not address the substance of Carroll’s claims.

Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, said it was “obviously ridiculous” to argue Trump cannot be sued in New York, his longtime home town, though the president said in October he plans to change his residency to Florida after leaving the White House.

Kaplan called Friday’s filing “a transparent effort to avoid discovery at all costs in a case involving a sexual assault”, referring to the pretrial evidence-gathering process called discovery. […]