Judge denies Trump request to delay defamation, battery trial brought by E. Jean Carroll
NEW YORK (WABC) -- A federal judge in New York on Monday denied former President Donald Trump's latest attempt to delay trial in the defamation and battery case brought by former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll.
Trump sought a one month delay of the April 25 trial, arguing a "cooling off" period was necessary following intense media coverage of his criminal indictment.
The judge called the suggestion the coverage could preclude the selection of a fair jury "pure speculation."
"There is no justification for an adjournment," Judge Lewis Kaplan decided. "This case is entirely unrelated to the state prosecution."
The judge included a pointed reminder that the postponement Trump sought may be a mixed blessing.
"Events happen during postponements. Sometimes they can make matters worse," Kaplan wrote, noting the multiple criminal and investigations Trump faces. "Developments in at least one of these matters, as well as actions and statements by Mr. Trump in relation to any, may well give rise to intense publicity that, in some respects, Mr. Trump might claim to be prejudicial in this case. Mr. Trump's suggestion that a one-month trial postponement in this case would ensure the absence of any such developments in the period immediately preceding jury selection is not realistic."
Trump has denied that he raped Carroll and has accused the former longtime Elle magazine advice columnist and her lawyer of being politically driven after Carroll disclosed her claims for the first time publicly in a 2019 memoir while Trump was still president.
Roberta Kaplan, Carroll's lawyer, responded in a letter to the court last Thursday, asking the judge to deny Trump's latest bid for a delay to the trial.
"One thing is clear - Trump will stop at nothing to avoid having a jury hear Carroll's claims," she wrote.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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