On Monday, a federal judge in New York denied former President Donald Trump’s bid for a mistrial in writer E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuit alleging that Trump raped her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s.
Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina filed an 18-page motion hours ahead of his second day of cross-examining Carroll, which accused U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan of making “pervasive unfair and prejudicial rulings” against his client. Tacopina requested that Kaplan “correct the record for each and every instance in which the Court has mischaracterized the facts of this case to the jury” and allow Trump’s counsel to “have greater latitude” to cross-examine Carroll. The motion added that Kaplan’s “one-sided rulings” demonstrate “a deeper leaning towards one party over another,” including comments that express “favoritism.” It also stated: “Here, despite the fact trial testimony has been underway for only two days, the proceedings are already replete with numerous examples of Defendant’s unfair treatment by the Court, most of which have been witnessed by the Jury.” Kaplan, however, denied the motion shortly before the jury was brought in to hear Carroll’s testimony on Monday.
Last week, Carroll took the witness stand for her lawsuit against Trump and told jurors: “I’m here because Trump raped me.” Carroll alleges Trump assaulted her in 1995 or 1996 at a Bergdorf Goodman department store on Fifth Avenue in New York City. In her testimony at the civil trial in federal court in lower Manhattan last week, Carroll said Trump “lied and shattered my reputation, and I’m trying to get my life back” after she came forward with her allegations in 2019.
Trump has repeatedly denied Carroll’s allegations during the trial.
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