Judge rejects Trump, rape accuser Carroll’s request for single defamation trial

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A federal judge in Manhattan on Monday rejected a joint request by former U.S. President Donald Trump and E. Jean Carroll to hold a single trial on whether Trump defamed the former Elle magazine columnist by denying he raped her.

Carroll and Trump had said combining Carroll’s civil lawsuits would be more efficient and avoid juror confusion.

But in a one-page order, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan said both sides overestimated the potential benefits, and that he could “achieve appropriate conservation of judicial resources and avoidance of inconsistent rulings” in separate trials.

He also noted that both sides are awaiting a decision from a Washington, D.C. appeals court on whether Trump was immune from the first lawsuit, making a trial unnecessary.

Kaplan postponed indefinitely a scheduled April 10 trial in Carroll’s first lawsuit. An April 25 trial in her second lawsuit remains on schedule.

Trump is running for a second White House term.

A Manhattan grand jury is separately expected to vote soon on whether to indict him over a $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to bury her claim she had an affair with him. Trump has denied the affair took place.

Lawyers for Carroll declined to comment.

Alina Habba, a lawyer for Trump, called postponing the first trial “the right decision given that we are waiting on an important decision from the D.C. Court of Appeals.” 

Both lawsuits stemmed from Trump’s discussion of Carroll’s claim that he raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan in late 1995 or early 1996.

Carroll sued Trump in November 2019 after Trump told a reporter at the White House that he did not know Carroll, that “she’s not my type,” and that she made up the rape claim to sell her memoir.

Three years later, Carroll sued again after Trump called her rape claim a “hoax,” “lie,” “con job” and “complete scam” in a post on his Truth Social media platform.

Her second lawsuit also includes a battery claim under New York’s Adult Survivors Act.

The Washington appeals court is deciding whether Trump should be immune from the first lawsuit because he was acting in the scope of his role as president when he spoke to the reporter.

Oral arguments were held on Jan. 10. The Biden administration has supported Trump’s immunity claim, while criticizing his “crude and offensive comments.”

The cases are Carroll v. Trump, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, Nos. 20-07311 and 22-10016.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot)