NEW RULING: Judge In Rape Lawsuit Torches Trump Pleading For Delay In Blistering Court Order

Elizabeth Williams via AP

Judge Lewis Kaplan torched former President Donald Trump’s pleading requesting a delay in rape accuser E. Jean Carroll’s defamation suit, citing Trump’s role in the media circus around his arrest and indictment.

Judge Kaplan denied Trump’s request for an adjournment in the defamation suit Carroll filed in 2019 after Trump accused her of lying about being raped by him, a request Trump made on the basis of the publicity around his recent arrest and arraignment in Manhattan over a 34-count felony indictment for crimes involving hush money payments to adult entertainment entrepreneur Stormy Daniels and others.

The judge categorically rejected Team Trump’s suggestion that a “cooling off” period after the arrest was necessary — especially since it was Trump who ginned up a lot of that publicity:

There is no justification for an adjournment. This case is entirely unrelated to the state prosecution. The suggestion that the recent media coverage of the New York indictment – coverage significantly (though certainly not entirely) invited or provoked by Mr. Trump’s own actions – would preclude selection of a fair and impartial jury on April 25 is pure speculation. So too is his suggestion that a month’s delay of the start of thistrial would “cool off” anything, even if any “cooling off” were necessary.

“It does not sit well for Mr. Trump to promote pretrial publicity and then to claim that coverage that he promoted was prejudicial to him and should be taken into account as supporting a further delay,” Kaplan wrote.

And in a footnote, the judge rattled off the many other investigations and potential indictments Trump faces — the Special Counsel Jack Smith-led Justice Department probes into Trump’s mishandling of classified information under the Espionage Act and his conduct surrounding the January 6 insurrection, as well as Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ grand jury investigation of his effort to overturn election results in Georgia and New York Attorney General Letitia James’s civil case against Trump and his company — and noted a “cooling off period” would do nothing to prevent those cases from blowing up:

Mr. Trump faces a number of criminal and civil investigations and litigation including (1) the United States Department ofJustice special counsel investigations of matters relating to the possible mishandling of classified documents as well as matters relating to the 2020 presidential election and the events of January 6, 2021, (2) a criminal investigation by the district attorney of Fulton County, Georgia, and (3) the New York Attorney General’s civil lawsuit against Mr. Trump, his family, and the Trump Organization for alleged financial wrongdoing.

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.

Finally, Kaplan raised the possibility the motion was a “delay tactic” and cited both parties’ ages as a reason not to delay:

It is difficult also to ignore the possibility that this latest eve-of-trial request for a postponement is a delay lactic by Mr. Trump, a concern the Court has discussed in previous rulings…

In consideration of the ages of both parties and extensive pretrial litigation that has occurred in both of Ms. Carroll’s actions, it would not be in tl1e interest of justice to permit further delay absent a strong justification. Mr. Trump has not provided any such justification.

Kaplan concluded the order “For the foregoing reasons, Mr. Trump’s request to adjourn the trial (Dkt J 06) is denied. The trial will commence on April 25, 2023.”