Judge won’t delay Trump’s defamation claims trial, calling the ex-president’s appeal frivolous
A New York federal decide expressed rising impatience Friday with what he calls ex-President Donald Trump’s “repeated efforts to delay” a defamation lawsuit towards him, saying he gained’t cease a January trial to await the end result of a “frivolous” appeal of one in all his rulings.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan made the remarks in a written ruling as he criticized arguments made by Trump’s attorneys in asking him to mothball the 2019 civil claims by a New York columnist who says Trump raped her in a luxurious Manhattan division retailer dressing room in spring 1996.
“This case was largely stalled for years due largely to Mr. Trump’s repeated efforts to delay,” Kaplan wrote. “Mr. Trump’s newest movement to remain — his fourth such request — is one more such try to delay unduly the decision of this matter.”
The ruling will increase the probability that Trump will face the defamation lawsuit on Jan. 15, simply as main season begins in his quest to develop into the Republican nominee for president subsequent 12 months. The Iowa Republican caucuses are being held that day.
In the meantime, Trump faces 4 prison indictments elsewhere. In two circumstances, he was accused of in search of to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election. He additionally faces a categorised paperwork case in Florida and prices that he helped organize a payoff to porn actor Stormy Daniels to silence her earlier than the 2016 election. He has denied all prices.
In Might, a jury awarded the author, E. Jean Carroll, $5 million in damages, concluding she was sexually abused and defamed by Trump, although she was not raped. Her attorneys now search one other $10 million in compensatory damages and “considerably extra” in punitive damages for remarks he made whereas president and after the jury verdict.
The defamation portion of the award pertained to remarks Trump made final October when he rejected understanding Carroll and insisted the sexual assault had by no means occurred and he was by no means in the retailer together with her.
Earlier than reaching its verdict, the jury heard the 79-year-old author testify at size about how her romantic life nearly ended after Trump turned a enjoyable, flirtatious likelihood encounter at a Bergdorf Goodman retailer right into a violent assault. Trump, 77, didn’t attend the trial.
Defamation claims pertaining to remarks Trump made in 2019 after Carroll revealed her rape claims for the first time publicly in a memoir and remarks he made after Might’s verdict can be thought-about at the January trial.
Carroll’s attorneys are planning for the January trial to consist solely of a damages section, counting on the Might jury’s verdict relating to sexual abuse.
Kaplan has rejected Trump’s claims that he’s entitled to immunity as a result of he was president when he commented in 2019.
His attorneys requested Kaplan to place the January plans on maintain, saying there was a considerable probability Trump would succeed on appeal.
Kaplan mentioned Friday the arguments have been “with out advantage” and Trump had “proven no probability of success on appeal.”
Thus, Kaplan dominated, “this Courtroom certifies that Mr. Trump’s appeal is frivolous.”
Lawyers for Trump didn’t instantly return electronic mail messages in search of remark.
