New York, USA.- Donald Trump has been denied a mistrial in the civil sexual assault case against him after he petitioned for what he called “unfair and prejudicial” decisions that gave his accuser an advantage in front of the jury.
The former president’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, said in a letter sent Monday to US District Judge Lewis Kaplan that the court should either grant a mistrial – with the trial declared invalid, which could result in a new one – or correct the dossier to address a series of decisions it says gave an unfair advantage to E. Jean Carroll, the New York author who alleges Trump raped her in the 1990s.
The judge denied the request Monday morning from the stand, without explanation, as the trial continued. A written judgment may be issued later.
Tacopina also requested greater freedom to question Carroll when she returned to the witness stand on Monday. She argued that Kaplan improperly closed lines of questioning to her last week about details of the alleged attack and its aftermath.
This is the second week of the trial, which Trump has yet to attend.
Carroll, a former advice columnist for Elle magazine, claims Trump raped her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in 1995 or 1996. Last year, she filed a lawsuit under a New York law that temporarily lifts the statute of limitations on decades-old assault claims.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing in this case, as well as in all cases and investigations against him, calling them part of a partisan effort to bring him down. Carroll’s trial, the latest in his troubles, has brought new attention to past allegations about his treatment of women, who failed to stop his 2016 presidential campaign as he runs for the 2024 presidential race.
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Tacopina argued that the judge improperly halted his questioning of Carroll about whether she ever requested department store security footage of her and Trump near the store’s entrance, where she claims they met before deciding to shop together. The lawyer said his failure to search for such images is evidence that the attack did not take place.
The lawyer also claimed that the judge improperly bolstered Carroll’s testimony when Tacopina questioned him about a line in his 2019 book, “What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal,” in which he suggested that men should be “sent to Montana and retrained.”
“Understand that that was said as satire,” Carroll testified.
“Oh, okay,” Tacopina said.
The judge then chimed in to say it was a reference to Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” and Carroll agreed. Tacopina said the exchange was inappropriate.
‘Favouritism’ before the jury
“The court should not provide evidence from the bench to substantiate the plaintiff’s position in a way that would suggest favoritism toward either party,” Tacopina said in his letter.
Trump, 76, has long argued that Carroll’s accusation was impossible to believe because of his age and because he was not his “type.” He also argues that there would have been witnesses to her and that she would have screamed or reported it to the Police afterwards.
Carroll, 79, says the sixth-floor lingerie department where she alleges the attack occurred was unstaffed and nearly deserted on the weeknight they were there, and she did not report the incident because she was embarrassed and because she feared that Trump would try to destroy her if she spoke.
