Donald Trump is seeking a four-week delay to a civil trial over his alleged rape of New York author E. Jean Carroll, citing a “deluge” of publicity from his recent unrelated criminal indictment.
A “cooling off” period is necessary for Trump to get a fair trial following his “unprecedented indictment and arraignment,” his lawyer Joseph Tacopina said in a letter late Tuesday to the judge overseeing Carroll’s case. The five- to seven-day trial is set to start April 25 in federal court in Manhattan.
“Holding the trial of this case a mere three weeks after these historic events will guarantee that many, if not most, prospective jurors will have the criminal allegations top of mind,” Tacopina said.
Trump pleaded not guilty on April 4 in New York state court to 34 felony counts of falsifying documents in connection with hush payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and a Playboy model over sexual encounters they say they had with him, which he denies.
Jurors in the Carroll case will still have the alleged encounters “ringing in their ears” if the trial goes ahead as planned, Tacopina said.
Trump has denied wrongdoing in both the criminal and civil cases and said they are part of a broader political effort to take him down.
Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan declined to comment on the letter.
Carroll, a former advice columnist with Elle magazine, went public in 2019 with her claim that Trump raped her in a dressing room in the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan more than two decades ago. The suit going to trial was filed last year under a new New York law that temporarily lifts the statute of limitations for sexual assault claims even if they’re decades old.
Carroll’s earlier suit against Trump — a defamation complaint filed in 2019 after he called her a liar from the White House — is currently stalled on appeal. Trump is seeking to have that case tossed out, citing protections he says he had as an employee of the federal government at the time she sued.
