Baseless claim judge in E. Jean Carroll trial was 'involved in sex trafficking' | Fact check

Chris Mueller, USA TODAY
·3 min read
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The claim: Judge in E. Jean Carroll defamation trial was involved in sex trafficking

A Jan. 28 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows side-by-side photos of advice columnist E. Jean Carroll and Judge Lewis Kaplan.

The post is a screenshot of a Truth Social post by Gateway Pundit, which includes a link to a Jan. 27 article from the website with a headline that reads, "Who is Bill Clinton-Appointed Judge Lewis Kaplan, the Judge in the E. Jean Carroll Case?"

"Wait till (sic) you find he was involved in sex trafficking," reads text above the screenshot.

The post was liked more than 1,000 times in eight days.

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Our rating: False

There is no evidence Kaplan has been accused of sex trafficking. The website making the claim presents no proof to support this.

No evidence of sex trafficking accusations against judge

A federal jury on Jan. 26 ordered former President Donald Trump to pay more than $83 million in damages for defaming Carroll in 2019, when he denied her allegations of sexual assault. That amount is in addition to the $5 million Trump was previously ordered to pay after a different jury found he sexually abused and defamed Carroll.

Kaplan handled both trials, the most recent of which began Jan. 18 in New York. Trump clashed with Kaplan during his brief testimony in the case, prompting Kaplan to admonish him for speaking out of turn during the proceedings. Trump has criticized Kaplan outside of the courtroom, describing him as a "100% Trump Hater" in a social media post.

Amid the media scrutiny of handling two Trump trials, however, there have been no credible reports of any accusation of sex trafficking.

There is no mention of sex trafficking in the article by Gateway Pundit, a website that frequently publishes false claims.

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Kaplan became a federal judge after he was nominated in 1994 by then-President Bill Clinton. He has handled several high-profile cases before, including trials involving FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, two al-Qaida operatives and actor Kevin Spacey, ABC News reported.

Kaplan was also the judge who dismissed the lawsuit filed by a woman claiming Prince Andrew sexually abused her when she was a teenager traveling with the late disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. However, Kaplan dismissed the case only after lawyers on both sides asked him to do so, having issued an earlier ruling that the case could move forward.

There is no mention of sex trafficking in multiple articles written about Kaplan's history as a judge since his involvement in Carroll's case against Trump, nor was it mentioned in reports about the trial itself.

USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

PolitiFact also debunked the claim.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: No, judge in Trump trial not involved in sex trafficking | Fact check