Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in Manhattan rejected a request by Donald Trump for a one-month delay on his rape trial against columnist E. Jean Carrol.
Kaplan rejected arguments by Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina that Trump’s recent indictment in New York state court on criminal falsification of business records charges had created such a wave of negative publicity that a one-month cooling-off period was necessary before the rape trial begins.
“There was, of course, a great deal of media coverage — some of it invited and, indeed, provoked by Mr. Trump — first of the impending indictment, then the indictment itself, and finally the arraignment. But the connection that Mr. Trump seeks to draw between that coverage and either the need for or the effectiveness of a ‘cooling off’ period is unsupported by any evidence,” the judge said.
A delaying tactic?
Kaplan said a portion of recent media coverage of Trump’s indictment was “of his own doing” as Trump made public statements on his social media platform, in press conferences, and interviews.
“It does not sit well for Mr. Trump to promote pretrial publicity and then to claim that coverage that he promoted was prejudicial to him and should be taken into account as supporting a further delay,” the judge said, adding that he was also concerned that the request was a “delay tactic by Mr. Trump.”
Legal Threats Donald Trump Faces
In a footnote, the judge cited other legal threats Trump faces to show that a month-long delay in the trial stemming from Carroll’s lawsuit could make the climate to find a fair jury worse rather than better.
Meanwhile, a district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, is probing Trump’s actions after the 2020 election, and New York Attorney General Letitia James has sued Trump, his family, and the Trump Organization for alleged financial wrongdoing.
Carroll first sued Trump for defamation after he said Carroll lied when she wrote in a 2019 memoir that he attacked her in the dressing room of an upscale Manhattan department store in early 1996.
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