Judge Quickly Dismisses Trump’s Request For Mistrial in E. Jean Carroll Case

Judge Lewis Kaplan denied a request for a mistrial by Donald Trump’s legal team in the E. Jean Carroll defamation and battery case on Monday just hours after it was filed.

Joe Tacopina, an attorney for the former president argued in an overnight letter that Kaplan had made “pervasive unfair and prejudicial rulings” against his client and asked him to “correct the record for every instance in which the Court has mischaracterized the facts of this case to the jury.”

Kaplan declined to honor that request without further explanation on Monday morning.

Carroll, formerly an advice columnist for Elle, has alleged that Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store in 1996. She is suing Trump for defamation — he has called her allegation “a Hoax and a lie” and explained that “This woman is not my type!”– as well as battery; New York law allows survivors of sexual assault to sue for battery after the statute of limitations for the underlying crime has passed.

Tacopina wrote in his letter that Kaplan has improperly prevented him from asking Carroll about certain issues on the witness stand, including inquiring as to why she didn’t seek out security camera footage to back up her case.

The trial resumed on Monday after Kaplan rejected Tacopina’s request.

The civil suit comes amidst Trump’s mounting legal troubles in criminal court, including Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s falsification of business records case — for which Trump has already been indicted and arraigned — and Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s actions during the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.

While it’s unclear how Trump’s time in court will ultimately affect his third bid for the White House, it has not yet endangered his path to securing the Republican nomination. Since his indictment by a grand jury convened by Bragg, Trump’s polling numbers have surged, with the former president portraying the prosecution as a politically-motivated attack on both himself and his supporters.