E. Jean Carroll trial delayed for a second time, postponing expected Trump testimony
REUTERS/Andrew Kelly; Luiz C. Ribeiro/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
- E. Jean Carroll's second defamation trial against Donald Trump was delayed again.
- The judge previously skipped Monday and Tuesday following a juror COVID scare and the New Hampshire primary.
- Trump intends to take the witness stand, his attorney said this week.
Testimony in E. Jean Carroll's ongoing defamation trial against Donald Trump was postponed for the second day in a row, according to a notice posted to the court docket.
The trial will now resume on Thursday.
US District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is presiding over the trial in Manhattan federal court, opted not to hear any testimony in the case on Monday after a juror called in sick and said he was exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms.
Kaplan also called off the trial day on Tuesday. Trump's attorney Alina Habba pointed out that New Hampshire held its Republican presidential primary election on Tuesday, and that Trump wanted to campaign in the state.
The trial was supposed to pick back up on Wednesday. Trump himself, Habba said in court, wanted to testify.
But on Tuesday afternoon, a docket entry said the trial would continue to be delayed until Thursday morning. A court spokesperson did not explain the delay. The court's calendar shows that the trial will continue on Friday as well.
A jury last year in the same courtroom already found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and defaming her by calling her a liar, as she alleged.
The ongoing trial concerns additional defamation damages for two statements Trump made in 2019, while he was president, disparaging Carroll by calling her dishonest and insulting her appearance.
Carroll testified last week. Her legal team is expected to call just one remaining witness, Robbie Myers, the former editor of Elle magazine, where Carroll worked as a columnist. After that, the defense team will have a turn and may call Trump to the witness stand.
It's not clear what Trump will testify about. On Truth Social and at rallies, he's continued calling Carroll a liar and claims he doesn't know who she is. But because a jury already found him liable, he and his lawyers are not permitted to make those arguments in the current trial.
Chris Mattei, an attorney who represented family members of Sandy Hook shooting victims in their defamation trial against conspiracy theorist Alex Jomes, told Business Insider it would be pointless for Trump to testify.
"There is no halfway competent lawyer who would recommend to Donald Trump that he should testify in this case," Mattei, who won a $1.5 billion verdict in the Alex Jones case, said. "Unless he was going to apologize and say that he had committed himself to never doing it again. We know that's not going to happen."
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