Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan has, in an order filed on Monday, rejected another attempt from Trump to delay the start of an upcoming trial on sexual assault claims against him from writer E. Jean Carroll. This time, Trump tied the push for a month of delay before the trial to supposed problems from the publicity surrounding his recent indictment in Manhattan on allegedly falsifying business records.
Those alleged falsifications were in connection to hush money that was provided to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election, and among other relevant points, Kaplan disputed the idea that the substances of the two cases were substantially the same. The criminal case doesn’t even directly relate to the alleged affair that preceded Daniels receiving the funds, and more generally, it’s not critical to selecting jurors for the trial on Carroll’s claims whether they know of the criminal case that is moving forward in separate venues.
Rather, as Kaplan outlined it, what’s at issue is whether a fair and impartial jury can be assembled regardless of information that has been circulating, and the ordinary process of jury selection provides for pursuing exactly that aim. The points of contention Kaplan had with Trump’s arguments continued from there, also including that some of the coverage associated with his criminal case was essentially of his own doing thanks to actions including public statements.
“It is difficult also to ignore the possibility that this latest eve-of-trial request for a postponement is a delay tactic by Mr. Trump, a concern the Court has discussed in previous rulings,” Kaplan wrote. “It now has been more than three years since Ms. Carroll filed her first lawsuit against Mr. Trump alleging that he raped her in the mid 1990s. She now is over 79 years of age and is entitled to her day in court just as both parties are entitled to a fair trial.” The judge also noted Trump’s advanced age.
Separately, Kaplan also recently rejected a push from Trump’s corner to use a written questionnaire for prospective members of the jury, something that — as proposed by the former president’s team — would’ve meant exposing personal details of those considered for the jury, despite the judge already deciding on anonymity for the group. In general, there have been concerns about rhetoric from Trump helping facilitate threats of some kind to the safety of those on the other side in court proceedings. Kaplan also recently rejected a push Trump made for a delay after what was apparently additional information came out about funding that’d been made available for Carroll’s side, although the judge allowed for additional, limited questioning of the writer.
Breaking
A federal judge REJECTS another Trump request to delay the @EJeanCarroll civil rape trial, which sought a supposed "cooling off" period from indictment media coverage the ex-president "invited or provoked."
Background @LawCrimeNews https://t.co/0OaDkPPyDQ pic.twitter.com/8y5PIuYTJw
— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) April 17, 2023
