Trump Is Denied Mistrial Over ‘Unfair’ Rulings in E. Jean Carroll Case
(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump was denied a mistrial in the civil sexual assault case against him, after he made the request over what he called “unfair and prejudicial” rulings giving his accuser an advantage in front of the jury.
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The former president’s lawyer Joe Tacopina said in a letter Monday to US District Judge Lewis Kaplan that the court should grant a mistrial — with the trial declared invalid, potentially resulting in a new one — or correct the record to address a series of rulings he claims gave an unfair boost to E. Jean Carroll, the New York author who claims Trump raped her in the 1990s.
Read the letter here
The judge denied the request Monday morning from the bench, without explanation, as the trial got back underway. A written ruling is likely to follow.
Tacopina also asked for greater latitude to cross-examine Carroll when she returned to the witness stand on Monday. He argued that Kaplan improperly shut down his lines of questioning last week about details of the alleged attack and its aftermath. It’s the second week of the trial, which Trump hasn’t yet attended.
Carroll, a former advice columnist with Elle magazine, claims Trump raped her in a dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman department store in 1995 or 1996. She sued last year under a New York law that temporarily lifts the statute of limitations on assault claims that are decades old.
Trump has denied wrongdoing in the case, as in all the cases and probes he faces, calling them part of a partisan effort to take him down. The trial of Carroll’s suit, the latest of his travails, has brought new attention to past claims about his treatment of women that failed to derail his 2016 presidential campaign, as he runs in the 2024 race.
Security Footage
Tacopina argued the judge improperly stopped him from questioning Carroll about whether she ever asked the department store for security video footage of her and Trump near the entrance to the store, where she claims they ran into each other before deciding on a whim to shop together. The lawyer said her failure to seek such footage is evidence that the attack didn’t happen.
Read More: Trump Lawyer Presses E. Jean Carroll on Details of Alleged Attack
The lawyer also claimed the judge improperly bolstered Carroll’s testimony when Tacopina questioned her about a line in her 2019 book What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal, in which she suggested men should be “sent to Montana and retrained.”
“You understand that was said as satire,” Carroll testified.
“Ah, OK,” Tacopina said.
The judge then weighed in to say it was a reference to Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal, and Carroll agreed. Tacopina said the exchange was inappropriate.
‘Favoritism’ Before Jury
“It was not for the court to provide evidence from the bench to corroborate plaintiff’s position in a way that suggested to the jury favoritism of any one party,” Tacopina said in his letter.
Read More: Trump’s Fate in Rape Lawsuit in Hands of Librarian, Janitor
Trump, 76, has long argued that Carroll’s allegation that he assaulted her was impossible to believe given her age and because she was not his “type.” He also argues there would have been witnesses and that she would have screamed, or reported him to the police afterward.
Carroll, 79, says the sixth-floor lingerie department where she alleges the attack occurred was unstaffed and all but deserted on the midweek evening when they were there, and that she didn’t report the incident because she was ashamed and because she feared Trump would try to destroy her if she spoke up.
The case is Carroll v. Trump, 22-cv-10016, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
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--With assistance from Patricia Hurtado.
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