Donald Trump will flout court orders, “sow chaos” and create a “circus” at his $10 million defamation trial next week in Manhattan, plaintiff E. Jean Carroll warned in court papers Friday.
A lawyer for Carroll — who a jury found last May was telling the truth when she said Trump sexually abused her inside a designer store fitting room in 1996 — claimed in the new documents that Trump, 77, would “pay no heed” to what the judge says if the former president takes the stand in Manhattan federal court.
US District Judge Lewis Kaplan has already found Trump liable for defaming the 79-year-old “Ask E. Jean” writer by falsely claiming in 2019 — with “actual malice” — that she accused him of raping her “to get publicity.”
All that’s left to decide at the upcoming trial is how much in damages Trump must pay, with Carroll asking for more than $10 million — on top of $5 million that jurors ordered the ex-president to cough up in the earlier separate case after finding that he sexually abused and defamed the columnist.
In the new court papers, Carroll’s lawyer warned of Trump’s unsanctioned, 5-minute speech delivered Thursday from the defense table as a separate $370 million civil fraud trial wrapped up in a nearby Manhattan state court.
Despite a judge’s bid in that case for him to “stick to the law and facts,” Trump soon veered away from the fraud case’s evidence to deliver a monologue in which he called the suit a “witch hunt” and insulted the jurist to his face.
“If Mr. Trump appears at this trial, whether as a witness or otherwise, his recent statements and behavior strongly suggest that he will seek to sow chaos,” Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, no relation to Judge Lewis Kaplan, wrote Friday. “Indeed, he may well perceive a benefit in seeking to poison these proceedings.”
Carroll’s lawyer wants Judge Kaplan to make clear that Trump “is forbidden from engaging in such antics and will suffer consequences if he does so.”
A nine-person-jury found that Trump “forcibly and without consent” penetrated Carroll using his fingers, according to a ruling by Judge Kaplan earlier this month.
Trump was cleared of a rape claim in the civil case after the jury was “unconvinced” that Trump penetrated Carroll using his penis, Kaplan wrote.
Still, Carroll’s claim that Trump “raped” her is also “substantially true” in the sense of how people think about rape today, the judge wrote.
Carroll’s lawyer added in the court papers Friday that if Trump attends the trial, he should have to state under oath in open court “that he understands that it is established for purposes of the trial that he sexually assaulted Ms. Carroll, and that he spoke falsely with actual malice and lied when accusing her of fabricating her account and impugning her motives.”
Trump’s camp did not answer a request for comment Friday. They have until Sunday morning to respond in court papers.
The judge has barred Trump and his lawyers from bringing up the rape-sexual abuse distinction because it “would lead to a mini-trial as to whether Mr. Trump penetrated her with his penis as well as his fingers and thus waste time and confuse the jury,” the court papers say.
It would appear unlikely that Trump would agree to Carroll’s proposed terms, given that he’s repeatedly bashed her on social media in recent weeks, claiming that he does not know her.
Trump told reporters Thursday that he plans to attend next week’s trial despite not being forced to because its a civil rather than criminal case.
Court officials told the Post on Friday that they have yet to receive word that he’d be appearing.
