Former Elle journal recommendation columnist E. Jean Carroll watches as former President Donald Trump’s video deposition is performed in courtroom throughout a civil trial by which Carroll accuses Trump of raping her in a division retailer dressing room within the mid-Nineteen Nineties and of defamation, in New York, Could 4, 2023, on this courtroom sketch.
Jane Rosenberg | Reuters
A federal appeals courtroom on Thursday denied former President Donald Trump‘s request to halt proceedings within the upcoming E. Jean Carroll defamation trial.
In a courtroom submitting final week, Trump’s attorneys requested the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court docket of Appeals to delay the case for 90 days whereas he thought of interesting the courtroom’s earlier rejection of his efforts to make use of presidential immunity as a protection.
The appeals courtroom denied that request on Thursday, permitting the trial to start Jan. 16.
Trump’s request for a pause within the proceedings got here after the appeals courtroom unanimously dominated that the previous president had waited too lengthy — three years — to lift his presidential immunity protection within the defamation trial.
Trump had argued that he could not be sued for remarks he made in 2019 about Carroll and the claims of sexual assault in opposition to him as a result of he was president on the time. He additionally contended that his feedback had been associated to his official duties as president as a result of he wanted to talk publicly concerning the accusations being false.
The courtroom famous that whereas Carroll filed her defamation swimsuit in November 2019, adopted by Trump’s response in January 2020, he did not deliver up the presidential immunity protection till January 2023. Permitting him to make use of that protection now would trigger “undue prejudice” to Carroll, the judges mentioned of their ruling.
The upcoming trial is the second involving Trump and Carroll, {a magazine} author who alleged Trump raped her within the mid-Nineteen Nineties and defamed her after she spoke out publicly together with her accusations in 2019. Trump has repeatedly denied the allegations. A jury this yr discovered Trump chargeable for sexual abuse and defamation and awarded Carroll $5 million in damages, a verdict Trump is interesting.
The second trial facilities on remarks Trump made about Carroll throughout his presidency and after the $5 million verdict, together with his disparaging feedback in opposition to her resembling calling her a “whack job.” The trial, which is predicted to final three to 5 days, solely focuses on what cash damages Carroll is entitled to.
U.S. District Choose Lewis Kaplan in June denied Trump’s immunity argument, writing that presidential immunity is “not a ‘get out of damages legal responsibility free’ card.”
Trump has additionally raised the presidential immunity argument within the election interference case introduced in opposition to him by particular counsel Jack Smith. U.S. District Choose Tanya Chutkan shot down his argument in that case, ruling this month that the previous president was not immune to the prison costs. Trump, who has pleaded not responsible within the case, appealed the ruling to the federal appeals courtroom in Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court docket final week denied Smith’s request for the excessive courtroom to right away determine the matter.
