A lawyer for a writer who says Donald Trump sexually abused her in the 1990s and then defamed her during his 2019 presidency said Saturday that the infamous “Access Hollywood” tapes and two women who accused Trump of abuse will not be presented to a New York jury. considering defamation damages.
The disclosure by attorney Roberta Kaplan, who represents advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, means the Republican front-runner in this year’s presidential race could testify in Manhattan federal court as early as Monday, a day before the New Hampshire primary.
Jurors are considering whether Trump owes Carroll more than the $5 million awarded to him last spring by another jury that concluded Trump sexually assaulted but did not rape Carroll in the dressing room of a Manhattan luxury store in the spring of 1996 and then defamed her in October 2022.
Trump attended the hearing for two of the first three days, only skipping it on Thursday, when he attended his mother-in-law’s funeral in Florida.
Kaplan said late Saturday in a letter to the judge that he would not show jurors a 2005 tape in which Trump was caught on a hot microphone talking disparagingly about women to keep the issues in the trial “focused.”
For the same reason, he said he would not call two other Trump accusers as witnesses: Natasha Stoynoff and Jessica Leeds.
A jury previously found that Trump sexually abused Carroll. AP
Both women testified at the trial that ended last May. Leeds, a former stockbroker, said Trump groped her against her will on an airline flight in the 1970s, while Stoynoff, a writer, said Trump forcibly kissed her against her will when he interviewed her for a 2005 article.
Kaplan noted that Trump’s lawyers have said he has the right to testify about the “Access Hollywood” tapes and Stoynoff and Leeds’ allegations, although he would not have if they had not been introduced into the case by Carroll’s lawyers.
The judge in the case had instructed the jury that it must accept the jury’s findings last year and so the evidence has focused almost exclusively on the harm that has been caused to Carroll by Trump’s persistent claims that he never assaulted her and did not know. him and that he lied.
Trump, 77, has denied the allegations in the past week during campaign stops, on social media and at press conferences. And he continues to insist that Carroll, 80, made false claims against him to sell a 2019 memoir in which he first revealed the allegations publicly and for political reasons.
The judge has severely limited what Trump can testify to if he takes the witness stand, and Carrol’s lawyers are likely to decide to limit the introduction of more evidence to prevent Trump from veering into the subject of what he maintains are numerous false claims against him.
However, Kaplan said he plans to show the jury statements Trump made since his client finished testifying in the case on Thursday.
Trump could testify as soon as Monday. Getty Images
Kaplan said Trump said he planned to repeat his claim that he never attacked Carroll and didn’t know him “a thousand times.”
“Such a statement,” he wrote, “is certainly relevant to the issue of punitive damages, as it illustrates that the Defendant has no intention of ceasing his campaign of defamation against Ms. Carroll, even in the face of judicial proceedings in which his liability to defame her is complete.”
A lawyer for Trump did not return a request for comment on Kaplan’s letter Saturday night.
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
