Former president Donald Trump greets supporters at his Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Fla., on April 4, 2023. (Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg)
A federal judge on Monday denied a bid by Donald Trump to delay a civil trial involving a rape allegation by author E. Jean Carroll against the former president, rejecting a contention that a "cooling off" period is needed after Trump's arraignment this month in a criminal case related to hush money payments to an adult-film star.
In an order, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said the trial will begin in Manhattan on April 25 as planned.
In a letter last week to Kaplan, lawyers for Trump argued that the postponement was needed because of the "deluge" of publicity and "prejudicial media coverage concerning [Trump's] unprecedented indictment and arraignment."
"Holding the trial of this case a mere three weeks after these historic events will guarantee that many, if not most, prospective jurors will have the criminal allegations top of mind when judging" Trump's defense against Carroll, said the letter from lawyers Joe Tacopina and Alina Habba.
Trump, who has denied the accusations in both cases, has frequently employed delay tactics in litigation, including earlier in the Carroll case.
Carroll's attorney, Roberta Kaplan, who is not related to the judge overseeing the case, filed a letter to the judge last week saying that Trump's push for a delay was without merit because of the amount of publicity the ex-president receives regularly and the possibility that developments in other pending criminal investigations could occur soon even if the Carroll trial date is reset.
Roberta Kaplan also noted that the jury screening process in a major metropolitan area like New York is enough to ensure a fair jury is selected. She also said the attention Trump has pointed to as a problem for him in the Carroll case is largely self-generated, including when he began offering merchandise with a fake mug shot in conjunction with his New York indictment.
"If anything, it is somewhat perverse for Trump to seek a continuance in these proceedings based on the recent indictment when so much of the publicity he complains about has been driven by his own incendiary statements," Kaplan wrote.
In their letter, Trump's lawyers conceded that he is "a persistent subject of media coverage" but argued that the current situation is "unique."
"Jurors selected to hear Ms. Carroll's allegations against President Trump will have the breathless coverage of President Trump's alleged extra-marital affair with Stormy Daniels still ringing in their ears if the trial goes forward as scheduled," they wrote.
Trump pleaded not guilty April 4 to 34 felony charges that he falsified business records to conceal $130,000 in reimbursement payments to his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who had paid off adult-film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.
In 2019, Carroll accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in the dressing room of Bergdorf Goodman, an upscale department store in Manhattan, in the mid-1990s. According to Carroll, she and Trump had a chance encounter at the store, and he asked her to help him pick out a present for another woman. During this encounter, she says, he attacked her.
After Carroll went public with the accusations, Trump denounced and insulted her. She then sued him for defamation in late 2019.
Last year, Carroll filed another lawsuit, this one under a relatively new law in New York that allows sexual assault victims to sue years later. In that suit, Carroll said Trump "forcibly raped and groped her" and that he "knew he was lying" when he responded to her allegations.
Both cases had been scheduled to go to trial in April. Carroll and Trump sought to have the two lawsuits merged into one case, arguing that this would reduce costs and make the proceedings more efficient. But Kaplan, who is hearing both cases, rejected that request.
Kaplan indefinitely postponed the defamation trial in Carroll's first lawsuit, which had been set for April 10. The lawsuit filed last year, in which Carroll accused Trump of battery and defaming her, remains set to go to trial.
It remains unclear whether Trump will testify.
Carroll is among more than a dozen women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct over the years.
In denying the allegations by Carroll, Trump said she was "not my type." However, in a deposition at Mar-a-Lago last year, Trump mistook Carroll for his ex-wife Marla Maples when shown a photograph from the 1990s, potentially undermining one of the common defenses he has used to deny an attack.
"That's Marla, yeah. That's my wife," Trump said under examination from Carroll's lawyer in a selection of excerpts from the deposition that were unsealed in January.
