On Monday, a federal judge in New York denied former President Donald Trump’s bid for a mistrial in E. Jean Carroll’s civil battery and defamation lawsuit.
In an 18-page letter filed early Monday, Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina alleged Judge Kaplan had made “pervasive unfair and prejudicial rulings” against Trump. He also asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit, or as an alternative, “correct the record for each and every instance in which the Court has mischaracterized the facts of this case to the Jury” and “allow the Defendant’s counsel to have greater latitude to cross-examine Plaintiff and her witnesses.”
The letter also argued that Kaplan “shut down” a “proper line of questioning” about whether Carroll had sought to retrieve surveillance footage from the department store. It also stated that the judge’s interjections over Tacopina’s use of the phrase “criminal charge” resulted in “unfairness” to Trump.
Carroll returned to the witness stand in federal court in Manhattan this morning after Kaplan denied the request. In her testimony last week, Carroll said Trump “raped me” and “shattered my reputation.”
The former Elle advice columnist was cross-examined on Thursday and expressed exasperation when Mr. Tacopina asked why she did not scream when Mr. Trump allegedly raped her.
“I was in too much of a panic to scream, I was fighting,” she said. When Mr Tacopina continued to broach the topic, she said, “You can’t beat up on me for not screaming.”
“One of the reasons why women don’t come forward is they are asked ‘why didn’t you scream’,” Carroll said. “It keeps women silent.”
In the courtroom, Tacopina also questioned why Ms. Carroll decided to sue Trump and how she felt about him as a politician. Afterwards, he asked why she hadn’t filed a lawsuit against Les Moonves, CBS’s former chief executive, whom she had also accused of sexually assaulting her in her 2019 memoir, allegations that Mr. Moonves denies.
“He didn’t call me names,” Ms. Carroll said. “He didn’t grind my face into the mud like Donald Trump did.”
In her testimony last week, Carroll said she was just trying to get her life back after she came forward with her allegations in 2019. Meanwhile, Trump continues to repeatedly deny Carroll’s allegations, including in recent posts on his social media platform, Truth Social, during the trial.
