{"id":22966,"date":"2024-01-22T21:46:15","date_gmt":"2024-01-23T03:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=22966"},"modified":"2024-01-22T21:46:20","modified_gmt":"2024-01-23T03:46:20","slug":"trump-defamation-trial-delayed-by-covid-concerns-he-could-testify-on-wednesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=22966","title":{"rendered":"Trump defamation trial delayed by COVID concerns; he could testify on Wednesday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NEW YORK, Jan 22 (Reuters) – Donald Trump<\/u><\/a>may be set to testify in the writer E. Jean Carroll’s latest civil defamation trial in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday, following a two-day postponement triggered by COVID-19 concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan canceled testimony on Monday after one juror who felt ill was sent home for a COVID test, and Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba said she caught a fever after dining with her parents, one of whom contracted the virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday’s trial session was later also canceled, a court officer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trial concerns Trump’s June 2019 denials of Carroll’s claim that he raped the former Elle magazine advice columnist in the mid-1990s in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A different jury last May ordered Trump to pay Carroll $5 million over a similar October 2022 denial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaplan has ruled that the first trial established that Trump defamed and sexually abused Carroll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only issue for the nine jurors in the second trial is how much money Trump should pay<\/u><\/a> Carroll, if any. Carroll, 80, is seeking at least $10 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to the postponement, Habba said Trump “had been planning to testify” after Carroll’s lawyers finished presenting their case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump plans to be in New Hampshire on Tuesday for that state’s Republican presidential primary<\/u><\/a>, where he has been leading in opinion polls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The winner of the nomination is expected to face President Joe Biden<\/u><\/a>, the likely Democratic nominee, in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan, who is not related to the judge, said she had a “very short” amount of testimony left to present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Habba and her co-counsel, Michael Madaio, tested negative for COVID-19 on Monday. Neither they nor Trump wore masks in the courtroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NO MISTRIAL<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Trump, 77, has consistently denied wrongdoing, and accused Carroll of making up their encounter to boost sales of her then-new memoir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a post on his Truth Social website following Monday’s postponement, Trump maintained that he knows “absolutely nothing about” Carroll, and that the case was “one of the many Crooked Joe Biden-inspired Witch Hunt trials.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has also pleaded not guilty in four criminal cases, including two claiming he tried illegally to overturn his 2020 loss to Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judge Kaplan separately denied Trump’s request for a mistrial<\/u><\/a>, which arose from Carroll testifying that she destroyed emailed death threats after first accusing Trump of rape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump did not attend Carroll’s first trial, and attended jury selection and the first full day of her second trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is not required to testify, and Carroll’s lawyers have argued he might try to “sow chaos” if he did, perhaps believing that doing so would help him politically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last Wednesday, Judge Kaplan warned Trump he might be ejected for being disruptive in the courtroom, after a lawyer for Carroll said jurors might have overheard Trump loudly proclaim the trial a witch hunt and “con job.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I would love it,” Trump said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I know you would,” Kaplan replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reuters<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK, Jan 22 (Reuters) – Donald Trumpmay be set to testify in the writer E. Jean Carroll’s latest civil defamation trial in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday, following a two-day postponement triggered by COVID-19 concerns. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan canceled testimony on Monday after one juror who felt ill was sent home for a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":22967,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[26069,26070,2883,6597,1906,1230],"class_list":["post-22966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-civil-defamation-case","tag-coronavirus-testing","tag-covid-19","tag-testifying","tag-trial","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22966"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22968,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22966\/revisions\/22968"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}