NEW YORK — In the next ten days, former President Donald Trump must tell a judge whether he plans to attend his upcoming New York City trial in Manhattan federal court, where writer E. Jean Carroll is suing him for sexual battery and defamation, a judge ruled Monday.
The former president and Carroll must inform Judge Lewis Kaplan by Apr. 20 whether they plan to attend the trial in the Southern District of New York, which is expected to last about a week.
Kaplan’s order noted neither party is legally obliged to attend. And the judge said it did not attempt to suggest “legal consequences that might or might not flow from any decision not to be present throughout.”
It has “not yet” been decided whether Trump will attend, according his lawyer Joe Tacopina said. Asked whether Carroll plans to be there, her lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, said, “Of course.”
Carroll, 79, has accused Trump of raping her inside a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman on Fifth Ave in the mid-1990s. She’s also suing him for slandering her as a liar in post-presidency comments. Trump denies both claims.
Carroll’s rape case against Trump was the first filed under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which lifted the statute of limitations to bring sexual assault claims for one year.
The first lawsuit Carroll filed against Trump in 2019 — which included a defamation claim and was initially slated for trial Monday — has been put on hold pending a decision from the D.C. Court of Appeals.
In the first suit, which has been bogged down incessantly by appeals, Carroll claims Trump defamed her from the White House when he called her a liar and infamously denied the rape on the basis Carroll was not his “type.”
The D.C. court will rule on whether Trump was speaking in his capacity as president when he made the comments — and was thus shielded from litigation — or whether he made them as Trump, the individual, and can be sued as a private citizen.
Biden’s Justice Department has continued to defend Trump’s arguments in the first suit.
The trial slated for Apr. 25 comes as numerous state and federal legal threats continue to mount around Trump.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges brought by a state grand jury in Manhattan the week before last. The charges accuse him of falsifying business records to cover up a “hush money” payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels ahead of his 2016 election as president, which violated election laws.
A state-level Georgia investigation into his effort to overturn his loss in the 2021 presidential election is believed to be nearing a conclusion.
He also faces an investigation by federal special prosecutor Jack Smith, who’s probing his influence on the Jan. 6 insurrection of the U.S. Capitol and classified documents he took with him to Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House.
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