The lawyer for a columnist who claims Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in the 1990s and then defamed her when he was president in 2019 said Saturday that the infamous recording ofAccess Hollywood and two women who accused Trump of abuse will not be brought before a New York jury considering defamation damages.
The revelation by attorney Roberta Kaplan, who represents columnist E. Jean Carroll, means this year’s Republican presidential candidate could testify in Manhattan federal court as early as Monday, a day before the New Hampshire primary.
The jury is out on whether Trump owes M moreme Carroll that the $5 million she was awarded last spring by another jury that found Trump sexually assaulted her, but did not rape her, in a department store fitting room luxury hotel in Manhattan in the spring of 1996, then defamed her in October 2022.
PHOTO EDUARDO MUNOZ, REUTERS ARCHIVES
E. Jean Carroll
Trump attended the trial for two of the first three days, but only skipped it on Thursday, when he attended his mother-in-law’s funeral in Florida.
In a letter addressed to the judge, Mme Kaplan said Saturday she would not show jurors the 2005 recording in which Trump is caught making derogatory remarks about women, so as not to lose sight of the issues being addressed during the trial. .
For the same reason, she said she would not call two other Trump accusers: Natasha Stoynoff and Jessica Leeds as witnesses.
Both women testified during the trial which ended last May. Mme Leeds, a former stockbroker, said Mr. Trump abruptly groped her against her will during a plane flight in the 1970s, while Mr.me Stoynoff, a journalist, said Trump forcibly kissed her while she was doing an interview with him for a 2005 article.
Mme Kaplan noted that Trump’s lawyers had said he had the right to testify regarding the recording ofAccess Hollywood and the allegations of Mme Stoynoff and M.me Leeds, although he would not do so if they were not brought into the case by M’s lawyersme Carroll.
The judge in the case told the jury that they had to accept the findings of last year’s jury and that the evidence therefore focused almost exclusively on the harm caused to Ms.me Carroll by Trump’s continued claims that he never attacked her, that he doesn’t know her and that she was lying.
Trump, 77, denied M’s claimsme Carrol last week during campaign stops, on social media and at a press conference. And he continues to assert that Mme Carroll, 80, made false claims against him to sell her memoir in 2019, in which she first revealed the allegations publicly and for political reasons.
The judge severely limited what Trump can testify about if he takes the witness stand, and Mr. Trump’s lawyersme Carrol likely decided to limit the introduction of additional evidence to prevent Trump from straying on topics such as what he maintains are numerous false allegations against him.
However, Mme Kaplan said she plans to show jurors statements Trump has made since her client finished testifying in the case Thursday.
Mme Kaplan argued that Trump said he planned to repeat his claims that he never attacked Mme Carroll and did not know her “a thousand times”.
“Such statements,” she wrote, “are of course relevant to the question of punitive damages, because they illustrate that the defendant has no intention of ending his smear campaign against Ms.me Carroll, even in the face of legal proceedings in which his liability for defaming her is settled. »
A lawyer for Trump did not respond Saturday evening to a request for comment on M’s letterme Kaplan.