In a new letter to federal Judge Lewis Kaplan, lawyer Roberta Kaplan, who is representing writer E. Jean Carroll in litigation against former President Donald Trump, lays out concerning developments suggesting to some the ex-president’s team is intending to skirt recent decisions from the judge.
Specifically, the judge has barred from an imminent trial the usage of central arguments on whether or not Trump committed sexual assault as Carroll previously alleged before an earlier trial. Yet, Kaplan (the lawyer) has told the judge that Trump’s team seems intent on questioning Carroll’s motives amid the fallout from her account of Trump sexually assaulting her, something that to the lawyer seems clearly suggestive of a question also to her motives in ever accusing Trump at all. In other words, Carroll’s lawyer is alleging that the Trump team’s intentions are just to argue over the legitimacy of Carroll’s assault claims again, something a jury already decided in the first trial.
Carroll’s team is seeking clarifying decisions from the judge. They cited an example of a portion from an interview that Carroll did with CNN that Trump’s side has already used in attempting to undercut Carroll’s most foundational accounts of what happened. Trump’s team is planning to use the CNN interview again.
“Defendant explained during the parties’ meet-and-confer that these emails demonstrate that Plaintiff was trying to gain publicity for her book. Every author who writes a book obviously wants people to read it. Defendant’s effort to transform his prior argument about Plaintiff’s financial motive to fabricate an assault […] into a supposedly new argument about Plaintiff’s motivation for publicity lacks merit,” Carroll’s lawyer said, adding later on: “We thus raise our concerns about these issues with Your Honor now in order to obtain a ruling before Defendant makes any prejudicial use of inadmissible exhibits during opening, and in the hope that the Court’s ruling might further deter efforts to circumvent Your Honor’s prior rulings.”
The second trial — meaning the one poised to begin imminently — is meant to handle just the question of financial penalties on Trump for allegations from Carroll of defamation for which the judge has already established liability on the ex-president’s part.
