A Manhattan judge shot down Donald Trump’s Monday request to have his New York City civil rape trial tossed, rejecting the ex-president’s complaints that he had not been given a fair shake.
In an early-morning 18-page court filing, Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina accused Judge Lewis Kaplan of unfairly sustaining a bevy of objections from Carroll’s lawyer on grounds they were argumentative.
Before proceedings got underway for the day, Kaplan swiftly denied mistrial motion.
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Tacopina said Kaplan had made “pervasive unfair and prejudicial rulings” in the case on trial for a week.
The defense attorney said it wasn’t fair that Kaplan allowed Carroll to describe to the jury of a vengeful Trump having two tables of lawyers when she “has a comparable amount of lawyers.”
Carroll made the comment during a line of questioning last week about why she waited so long to come forward. She described what her friend Carol Martin advised her when she told her about the alleged assault.
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“He was not only powerful, he was rich, he was famous, and, as Carol put it, he has 200 lawyers,” Carroll testified.
“I was afraid Donald Trump would retaliate, which exactly is what he did. That’s exactly. One of my biggest fears came absolutely true,” Carroll said. She later added, “He has two tables full of lawyers here today. It came absolutely true.”
Trump also complained that Kaplan would allow Natasha Stoynoff to testify without his lawyers questioning her first outside of the jury’s presence. Stoynoff had accused Trump of forcing his tongue down her throat when she interviewed him at Mar-a-Lago for People Magazine in 2005.
Carroll, 79, is suing Trump for sexual battery and defamation claims for the sexual assault she says happened inside Bergdorf Goodman in the mid-1990s. Trump denies the accusations and has accused Carroll of making them up to sell a book and destroy him politically.
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Trump’s lawyers have argued that if Stoynoff doesn’t say Trump groped her genitals, her testimony isn’t warranted. He also says it was unfair that Trump’s lawyers couldn’t grill a Bergdorf employee about Carroll’s efforts to track down security footage.
Among other arguments, Tacopina asked Kaplan to toss the case or “correct the record for each and every instance in which the court has mischaracterized the facts of this case to the jury.”
Carroll continued on cross-examination with Tacopina on Monday.