NEW YORK — E. Jean Carroll’s attorneys on Friday asked a federal judge to give Donald Trump strict warnings about what grounds he must avoid if he chooses to testify at a trial next week to determine what damages are owed for defamation claims.
Carroll’s trial is about damages for defamatory comments he made about her in 2019 when she came forward with a decades-old sexual assault allegation. Trump has already been found liable for those comments, and so he cannot make his first court appearance in the case to re-litigate it, Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan wrote.
“Mr. Trump cannot testify that he did not sexually assault Ms. Carroll … that he did not rape her, or did not know her, or had never seen her before,” wrote Kaplan, who is not related to the judge, citing past Trump remarks.
The damages trial is expected to start Tuesday with jury selection. Carroll was already awarded $5 million in a separate case against Trump for sexual abuse and for separate but related defamation claims. That verdict is being appealed.
Because all testimony in the upcoming trial will only examine what harm was inflicted on Carroll, “it is not clear, at least to us, what Mr. Trump could permissibly testify to given these limitations,” Kaplan added, noting that Trump could use the trial to try to score political points.
Trump tried and failed to get the summations in the New York attorney general case and the Carroll case adjourned, citing the recent death of Melania Trump’s mother. On Friday, the judge in the Carroll trial said he would not postpone it for Amalija Knavs’s funeral, which is taking place in Florida on Thursday.
Trump is the polling leader for the Republican ticket for president in this year’s election.
At his New York Supreme Court hearing Thursday, Trump was supposed to be blocked from making his own closing arguments, in addition to the arguments his attorneys were making, because he would not commit to sticking to the issues in the case.
When his attorney Christopher Kise made one more last-minute pitch to allow Trump to speak without such a commitment, Judge Arthur Engoron asked Trump directly if he could promise to play by his rules, which were standard trial procedure.
Instead, Trump ignored the question and launched into a roughly six-minute tirade about the process and the attorney general being biased and unfair. He insisted that the lawsuit was punishment from a political foe and that comments along those lines were fair game because the civil allegations were unfairly brought.
“It takes little imagination to think that Mr. Trump is gearing up for a similar performance here — only this time, in front of a jury,” Kaplan said in her letter, citing the transcription of Thursday’s proceeding. Kaplan has asked the judge in the Carroll case to warn Trump of any possible consequences to ignoring court-ordered limitations on admissibility and proper procedure.
An attorney for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the new request by Carroll. Trump’s legal team must reply to the request in writing by 9 a.m. Sunday.
Trump denies ever having known Carroll and has accused her of lying, suggesting he would not have been sexually interested in her because she was “not my type.”
The former president, who has four pending criminal indictments, maintains his innocence in all legal matters including the attorney general’s civil case, which could prohibit his ability to do business in New York. He has already been found liable in that case for committing fraud broadly, lying about his wealth by up to $2.2 billion annually.