Creator E. Jean Carroll arrives to federal court in Latest York, US, on Tuesday, April 25, 2023. The trial of a civil suit by Carroll, who claims Donald Trump raped her within the Nineteen Nineties, is about to begin today.
Stephanie Keith | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump on Monday asked for a mistrial in author E. Jean Carroll’s civil rape and defamation case, accusing the judge of constructing “pervasive unfair and prejudicial rulings” against him.
The request got here after Carroll said Trump “raped me” and “shattered my repute” over two days of testimony within the trial, which began last week. Carroll is predicted to return to the stand in federal court in Manhattan on Monday.
In an 18-page letter, Trump attorney Joe Tacopina argued that Judge Lewis Kaplan mischaracterized evidence in Carroll’s favor, bolstered her testimony and wrongly sustained objections from Carroll’s lawyers that hampered his questioning of the witness.
Tacopina asked that if Kaplan doesn’t grant a mistrial, he “correct the record for each instance during which the Court has mischaracterized the facts of this case to the Jury” and provides Trump’s lawyers “greater latitude” during cross examination.
Carroll accused Trump of raping her within the dressing room of a Latest York City department store within the Nineteen Nineties, after which defaming her when she got here forward with the story many years later. Trump denies raping Carroll and says he has not defamed her. In recent social media posts, Trump has again questioned Carroll’s account and taunted her as “Ms. Bergdorf Goodman.”
Before Carroll first began testifying last Wednesday, Kaplan warned Trump’s lawyer concerning the former president’s posts.
Tacopina’s letter argued that Kaplan “shut down” a “proper line of questioning” about whether Carroll had sought to retrieve surveillance footage from the department store. The letter also said that the judge’s interjections over Tacopina’s use of the phrase “criminal charge” resulted in “unfairness” to Trump.
Tacopina also pointed to a moment in his cross-examination of Carroll when Kaplan chimed in to notice that Carroll’s book, titled “What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal,” was referencing a famous satire when it called for relocating all men to Montana.
“It comes from Jonathan Swift’s ‘A Modest Proposal,'” Kaplan noted in court. That comment suggested “Jury favoritism,” Tacopina’s letter argued.
Trump, who’s a number one candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has not made clear if he’ll attend any a part of the trial.
A lawyer for Carroll didn’t immediately reply to CNBC’s request for comment on the letter.