Former President Trump’s trial date on rape and defamation charges is being held for next week after a judge on Monday denied a request to delay it.
The civil trial stemming from E. Jean Carroll’s allegation that Trump raped her in a New York department store in the 1990s will begin as scheduled on April 25. Trump has denied that the rape occurred.
The judge denied the lawyers a month’s delay in trial after a New York grand jury indicted the former president on felony falsification of business records. Manhattan Judge Lewis A. Kaplan rejected the argument, saying the criminal charges are “unrelated” to the civil case, and that Trump himself caused much of the media coverage.
“This case has nothing to do with the state prosecution,” Kaplan said in the decision. “The suggestion that the recent media coverage of the New York indictment would prevent the selection of a fair and impartial jury on April 25 is pure speculation.”
Kaplan also said he was concerned that the request was another “delay tactic” by Trump.
The plaintiff further alleged that Trump defamed her by calling her a “liar” when he denied raping her in a department store dressing room. He added a charge of assault under a recent New York law that allows survivors of sexual assault to sue their attackers in cases where the statute of limitations has expired.
The civil lawsuit against Trump is just one of several legal tangles facing the presidential candidate, including two federal investigations into his handling of classified documents and his role in the events of January 6, 2021 on Capitol Hill.
