Trump wants to delay E. Jean Carroll rape trial so 'media frenzy' over his criminal indictment can die down
- E. Jean Carroll's defamation and battery lawsuit against Donald Trump is set for trial on April 25.
- On Tuesday, Trump's lawyer asked the judge to delay the start date for one month.
Former President Donald Trump is asking to delay his rape trial so that the "media frenzy" surrounding his recent criminal indictment can die down.
Trump's lawyer, Joe Tacopina, filed a request with US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan late Tuesday, asking to delay the E. Jean Carroll trial a month so there's a "brief 'cooling off' period between the trial of this matter and the recent deluge of prejudicial media coverage concerning his unprecedented criminal indictment and arraignment in Manhattan."
The rape trial is currently scheduled to begin in Manhattan on April 25. Longtime "Elle" advice columnist E. Jean Carroll has accused Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman changing room in the mid-1990s and has sued for defamation and battery.
Last week, less than a month before the Carroll trial was scheduled to begin, Trump traveled to New York City, where he was arraigned on a 34-count indictment related to alleged hush money payments paid to women while he was running for office.
Tacopina wrote in his request that "holding the trial of this case a mere three weeks" after the arraignment," will lead to concerns about "potential contamination of prospective jurors" and reduce Trump's chances of receiving a fair trial.
The "wall-to-wall media coverage" of the arraignment was "remarkable for its volume and incitement of animus towards President Trump," he wrote. He added that the coverage is especially detrimental to the Carroll case because both the criminal and civil cases deal with Trump's treatment of women.
"Jurors selected to hear Ms. Carroll's allegations against President Trump will have the breathless coverage of President Trump's alleged extra-marital affair with Stormy Daniels still ringing in their ears if trial goes forward as scheduled," Tacopina wrote.
"President Trump can only receive a fair trial in a calmer media environment that the one created by the New York County District Attorney. A short postponement of the trial will allow the recent surge in media coverage to subside and increase the likelihood that President Trump receives a fair trial," he added.
Tacopina and an attorney for Carroll declined Insider's request for comment on Wednesday.
In a letter to Kaplan on Wednesday, lawyers for Carroll called the request "meritless" and argued that any issues related to pretrial publicity can be addressed during the jury selection process.
"Waiting an additional four weeks will do nothing to 'cool' the unavoidable press and security concerns that will attend this trial—concerns that Your Honor has taken substantial measures to address," Carroll's lawyer, Roberta A. Kaplan, wrote. "Trump is exceptionally ill-suited to complain about fairness when he has instigated (and sought to benefit from) so much of the very coverage about which he now complains."
Judge Kaplan has yet to weigh in on the request, but he has repeatedly complained about Trump's team trying to delay the Carroll litigation.
Carroll has two active lawsuits against Trump. One was originally filed in 2019 for defamation, and another defamation and battery suit was filed last year after a new New York law allowed Carroll to sue Trump for the alleged rape itself, even though the statute of limitations had expired.
The first case was originally scheduled to begin April 10 but was put on hold while another court decides whether Trump can be sued since he was a sitting president when the alleged defamation took place. Trump's lawyers and the Department of Justice argue he's protected in that case by a law that shields federal employees from being sued for actions taken in the course of their jobs.