Global Courant 2023-05-01 22:19:59
A federal judge in New York on Monday rejected former President Donald Trump’s bid for a mistrial in writer E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuit alleging Trump raped her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s.
In a Archive of 18 pages hours prior to his second day of cross-examining Carroll, Trump attorney Joe Tacopina accused U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is overseeing the case, of making “piercingly unfair and prejudicial statements” against his client.
Barring a mistrial, Tacopina requested that Kaplan “correct the record for every instance in which the court misrepresented the facts of this case to the jury” and allow Trump’s counsel “to have more leeway” to cross-examine Carroll to subject.
E. Jean Carroll leaves Manhattan federal court on Tuesday.Kena Betancur/AFP – Getty Images
Tacopina wrote that Kaplan’s “one-sided statements” show “a deeper inclination for one side over the other”, including comments expressing “favouritism”.
“Despite the fact that the trial has only been going on for two days, the proceedings here are already full of numerous examples of the court’s unfair treatment of the defendant, most of which have been observed by the jury,” the jury said. letter.
Kaplan denied the motion Monday morning shortly before the jury was brought in to hear Carroll’s testimony, a court official confirmed.
Carroll’s attorneys did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
Carroll took the stand for her trial against Trump last week and told jurors, “I’m here because Trump raped me.” Carroll claims that Trump assaulted her in 1995 or 1996 at a Bergdorf Goodman department store on Fifth Avenue in New York City, when the “playful banter” she was engaged in with Trump, then a businessman, took a “dark turn.” She claims in her lawsuit that Trump “grabbed” her, “forced her against a locker room wall, pinned her in place with his shoulder, and raped her.”
In her testimony at the civil trial in federal court in Lower Manhattan last week, Carroll said Trump “lied and shattered my reputation, and I’m trying to get my life back” after coming forward with her allegations in 2019.
Trump has repeatedly denied Carroll’s allegations, including in recent posts on his social media platform Truth Social during the trial.
In his request for a mistrial, Tacopina challenged Kaplan’s ruling that prevented him from asking Carroll why she was not seeking security camera footage of Bergdorf Goodman.
“(P)dak that Plaintiff never attempted to determine whether such images of the parties existed constitutes circumstantial evidence that her allegation is false,” Tacopina wrote.
Tacopina’s request for a mistrial comes after Carroll floundered with him during cross-examination last week. Tacopina asked why she didn’t “cry for help” during the alleged attack.
“I am not a shouter. I was panicking and fighting,” Carroll replied visibly emotionally. “You can’t beat me up because I’m not yelling.”
Carroll’s lawsuit against Trump is one of many legal battles facing the former president. Trump was indicted last month on 34 counts of falsifying business records by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg for his role in hush money payments shortly before the 2016 presidential election. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
