Federal Judge Rips Trump Lawyers In Court As Woes Mount

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In a court challenge from writer E. Jean Carroll over a sexual assault she says Donald Trump perpetrated against her in the 1990s, federal Judge Lewis Kaplan wasn’t thrilled with the lack of preparedness from the ex-president’s team that was put on display during a hearing this week.

In the hearing, lawyer Roberta Kaplan, who is representing Carroll, indicated that the writer’s defense intends to consolidate the already filed defamation case against Trump covering his reaction to Carroll’s revelations with a lawsuit they’re planning for the near future covering Carroll’s account of the incident itself. Under newly implemented New York rules, victims of sexual misconduct will see a renewed opportunity to bring court action over the original incidents where they would have previously been restricted by what are known as statutes of limitations, and in a preview of the second lawsuit recently made available by the Carroll team, the writer directly accuses the former president of several specific offenses under New York law, including first-degree rape. If successful in her eventual case, Carroll would likely secure financial damages. Kaplan indicated in court this week she is aiming for going to trial early next year.

Trump’s defense pushed back on the idea of swift scheduling during this week’s proceedings, according to journalist Jose Pagliery. “Meanwhile, Trump’s lawyer echoes the same arguments they made this morning in NY state court on a totally different case: slow your roll, no need to have trial soon, there’s so much discovery to be done,” he said on Tuesday. Alina Habba, a Trump lawyer, shared in court she wasn’t ready to discuss a lot of detail regarding forthcoming proceedings and indicated she didn’t even know whether she would be tasked with further representing the ex-president after Carroll files her case directly accusing Donald of rape. “I have not even been retained on that matter,” she told the judge. “I do not know if I’m going to be retained on that matter.” Kaplan wasn’t impressed. “Your client has known this is coming for months, and he would be well advised to decide who’s representing him in it,” he told Habba.

It’s true — Carroll made her intentions to file an additional lawsuit abundantly clear. Trump, meanwhile, has actually restated some of the same sentiments that originally landed him on the other end of defamation litigation, which went to appeals court challenges over whether the former president could be protected because of the office he held when making the original statements. “And, while I am not supposed to say it, I will. This woman is not my type!” Trump additionally proclaimed in the recent rant. “She has no idea what day, what week, what month, what year, or what decade this so-called “event” supposedly took place.” That is not an accurate assessment of Carroll’s stated recollections of the incident.