Donald Trump Seeks Mistrial In E. Jean Carroll Rape Trial

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Donald Trump’s lawyer is asking the judge for a mistrial in a civil rape case against the former president, citing frustration with what the judge admonished in court and prevented him from questioning accuser E. Jean Carroll about, ahead of a second day of cross-examination.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 25: Magazine Columnist E. Jean Carroll leaves after the first day of her … [+] civil trial against former President Donald Trump at Manhattan Federal Court on April 25, 2023 in New York City. Jury selections begin in the Carroll civil trial against the former president, which she alleges attacked and sexually assaulted her in a dressing room of a luxury department store in the 1990s. The lawsuit comes after the passage of the Adult Survivors Act, a 2022 New York law that gave a one-year window beginning in November of that year for people to sue their alleged assailants even if the statute of limitations had expired, which had happened in Carroll’s case. The former president has stated that this never happened and has denied meeting her. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

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Key Facts

Donald Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, accused U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan of being biased against Trump in a letter filed early Monday morning ahead of Carroll taking the stand for cross-examination again.

Tacopina said Kaplan’s rulings “manifests a deeper leaning towards one party over another” and that he “openly expresses favoritism,” Reuters reported.

Trump’s legal team is claiming that Kaplan has, so far, “mischaracterized the evidence in favor of the Plaintiff” and “bolstered the testimony of the Plaintiff,” along with admitting improper testimony and shutting down certain lines of questioning, according to a copy of the letter.

The letter outlines that if Kaplan doesn’t declare a mistrial, he should at least let Tacopina have more freedom in the upcoming cross-examination and he should correct the record for the court.

Mistrial requests are often considered longshots, especially when the request is formed on a judge’s own statements, according to Reuters, but they can sometimes indicate basis for an appeal later down the road.

Key Background

Carroll’s trial started last week for the case, in which she alleges Trump raped her in a dressing room in the department store Bergdorf Goodman in the 1990s after they had been shopping together and defamed her in recent years while denying the accusations. The two friends Carroll allegedly told about the incident, as well as two other women who allege sexual assault from Trump, are set to speak at the trial.

What To Watch For

Carroll is set to return to the stand later Monday to continue cross-examination by Tacopina. When she took the stand the first time last week for questioning by her team, she said: “I’m here because Donald Trump raped me,” before going into detail about what she says happened between her and the former president.

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What To Watch For

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