On Monday, April 17th, a federal judge denied Donald Trump’s request to delay his upcoming defamation trial brought forward by former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll. The 76-year-old twice-impeached former president is being sued by Carroll, 78, in two separate lawsuits over allegations he defamed her character when denying her accusations that he sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in New York in the mid-1990s.
In the first lawsuit “Carroll I,” filed in November 2019, Carroll claims Trump defamed her by not only denying that the assault took place, but also saying she wasn’t his “type,” while also saying she simply made up the story to increase book sales and “make money.” In the second lawsuit “Carroll II,” filed on Friday, January 13th, Carroll added a charge of battery under the Adult Survivors Act – a law which New York passed in May 2022 that allows adult sexual abuse victims to sue their alleged attacker even if the statute of limitations has expired, as well as additional defamation claims for comments made by Trump in 2022.
The trial is set to begin in New York on April 25th. According to The Independent, on April 12th, Trump’s attorneys asked for the trial to be delayed by one month, as they thought a “cooling off” period was needed in order to obtain a fair and impartial jury following all the media attention surrounding Trump’s recent indictment. If you’ll recall, Trump was indicted on March 30th by a Manhattan grand jury for his alleged role in a scandal involving alleged hush money payments to adult entertainment star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Judge Denies Trump's Request To Delay Trial
Trump's lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, reportedly said that the recent media attention surrounding Trump’s indictment which contains 34 counts of Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree makes fairness impossible. "President Trump can only receive a fair trial in a calmer media environment than the one created by the New York County District Attorney," Tacopina wrote in a letter to the judge asking for a four-week delay.
However, Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected the notion that coverage of Trump's current court case would prevent the selection of a fair jury, calling it "pure speculation," adding: "There is no justification for an adjournment. This case is entirely unrelated to the state prosecution." The judge said that the postponement Trump and his lawyers were seeking may be a mixed blessing, saying: "Events happen during postponements. Sometimes they can make matters worse."
"Developments in at least one of these matters, as well as actions and statements by Mr. Trump in relation to any, may well give rise to intense publicity that, in some respects, Mr. Trump might claim to be prejudicial in this case," Kaplan continued, adding, "Mr. Trump's suggestion that a one-month trial postponement in this case would ensure the absence of any such developments in the period immediately preceding jury selection is not realistic."
Trump Not Currently Obligated To Attend Defamation Trial
The civil trial in New York is due to take place on April 25th, but the recently indicted former president is not currently required to attend, so it's unclear whether he will show up. Trump is currently not named among Carroll's list of proposed witnesses, but is the first name on his own defense list. If Trump does fail to attend the trial, Carroll's lawyers could subpoena him and force him to attend.
Alternatively, if the former president is not called to be questioned in court, the jury could be played sections of the deposition he gave back in October, 2022 instead. The deposition Trump gave under oath in October was partially unsealed in January. While answering questions, the former president described Carroll as a "liar" and a "nut job," and defended his earlier "not my type" comments.
What Do Legal Experts Think?
Tacopina also told Newsweek that, at the time of publishing, Trump still hadn’t decided whether or not he will attend the trial. Tre Lovell, a Los Angeles corporate and libel law attorney, explained that it may actually be beneficial for Carroll's lawyers not to call Trump to testify as part of the defamation case, telling Newsweek: "If they have strong testimony in the deposition, they can use that instead of giving Trump the chance of 'correcting' previous testimony or testifying in a manner that better helps him and hurts Carroll."
Lovell also went on to say that, in his opinion, it may be detrimental to Trump's case if he doesn’t show up for at least some of the trial. "If he is absent, the jury may get the impression that he doesn't care enough about the case to show up, which sometimes can give them an adverse impression," Lovell continued. "Attorneys can often mitigate this negative impression by explaining why a party is not there, or have the party show up on the first day to meet the jury, and then be absent afterward."
Trump's Previous Comments About Carroll's Lawsuit
Back in October, Trump lashed out and called the US legal system a "broken disgrace," after a judge ruled that he must answer questions under oath in Carroll's defamation lawsuit. After Kaplan rejected a request by Trump’s lawyers to delay a deposition that was scheduled for October 19th, Trump called the 2019 lawsuit "a complete con job."
"I don’t know this woman, have no idea who she is, other than it seems she got a picture of me many years ago, with her husband, shaking my hand on a reception line at a celebrity charity event," Trump said at the time. "She completely made up a story that I met her at the doors of this crowded New York City Department Store and, within minutes, 'swooned' her," he continued. "It is a Hoax and a lie, just like all the other Hoaxes that have been played on me for the past seven years." He added: "Now all I have to do is go through years more of legal nonsense in order to clear my name of her and her lawyer’s phony attacks on me. This can only happen to 'Trump!'"
