Trump Won’t Get Note Excusing Absence From Rape Suit Trial

Erik Larson
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(Bloomberg) -- The judge overseeing E. Jean Carroll’s civil sexual-assault lawsuit against Donald Trump is barring the former president’s lawyers from telling jurors that security concerns are to blame if he doesn’t show up at a trial starting next week.

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While defendants in such cases aren’t required to attend their trials, Trump is incorrect that the court and the City of New York would be overburdened by his presence, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan said in a memorandum on Thursday.

“In the meantime, there shall be no reference by counsel for Mr. Trump in the presence of the jury panel or the trial jury to Mr. Trump’s alleged desire to testify or to the burdens that any absence on his part allegedly might spare, or might have spared, the court or the City of New York,” the judge wrote.

Trump hasn’t yet decided if he’ll attend the trial set to start April 25 in Manhattan.

Carroll, a former advice columnist with Elle magazine, alleges Trump raped her in the 1990s in a department store dressing room in Manhattan. Both Carroll and Trump are making last-minute preparations for the rare trial of a former president in the civil suit Carroll filed last year. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and claims the lawsuit is part of a broader witch hunt against him.

Trump had sought a special jury instruction saying he’d been excused from attending, to prevent jurors from thinking negatively of his absence, but Kaplan said that request is “premature.” The judge said he can renew the request later if he decides not to attend the trial.

“As far as the court is aware, Mr. Trump is under no legal obligation to be present or to testify,” the judge said. “The plaintiff has made clear that she does not intend to call him as a witness. The decision whether to attend or to testify is his alone to make. There is nothing for the court to excuse.”

Shortly after the judge issued his decision, Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina said in a letter to the court his client still hasn’t decided if he’ll attend any part of the proceeding, and that he’ll make his decision at some point during the trial.

Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, blasted Trump’s request for a special jury instruction in a letter to the judge Wednesday night, arguing that Trump managed to speak at a recent National Rifle Association meeting and attend an Ultimate Fighting Championship event in Miami on top of scheduling a political event in New Hampshire next week. The judge agreed.

“The court notes from Mr. Trump’s campaign website and media reports that he announced earlier this week that he will speak at a campaign event in New Hampshire on April 27, 2023, the third day of the scheduled trial in this case,” the judge said. “If the Secret Service can protect him at that event, certainly the Secret Service, the Marshals Service, and the City of New York can see to his security in this very secure federal courthouse.”

Trump’s lawyer said in a Wednesday letter to the judge that Trump wants to attend, but the “logistical and financial burdens on New York” would be significant, especially after the media frenzy that accompanied Trump’s arraignment earlier this month in an unrelated criminal case brought against him by the Manhattan district attorney over financial records.

Carroll’s lawyer called the argument “flimsy.”

In another letter to the judge on Wednesday, Carroll’s lawyers claimed Trump intends to submit evidence at trial regarding her past sex life in violation of court rules. Her lawyers learned last week that Trump’s legal team plans to show the jury excerpts of her deposition that would “squarely” break rules against introducing evidence that’s intended to “prove that a victim engaged in other sexual behavior,” according to the filing.

Carroll’s lawyer filed details of the disputed evidence separately under seal. The federal rules of evidence are intended to prevent “embarrassment for victims of sexual assault or otherwise publicly reinforce offensive sexual stereotypes about them,” according to the filing.

The case is Carroll v. Trump, 22-cv-10016, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

(Updates with judge barring Trump lawyer from explaining absence to jury.)

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