A New York judge denied former President Donald Trump’s law team from presenting legal arguments regarding columnist E. Jean Carroll’s rape claims for an upcoming defamation trial, according to the Associated Press.
U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan filed the ruling Saturday night, following a request from Carroll’s attorneys that the former president be prohibited from “offering any evidence, conducting any examination, or making any argument” that had to do with a previous trial from last year, according to The Daily Beast. (RELATED: Trump Calls For Release Of Jan 6 ‘Hostages’)
Trump was found liable in May 2023 after Carroll had filed a rape and defamation lawsuit against the former president. While a jury had found there was not sufficient evidence to convict Trump of rape, Carroll was awarded $5 million in damages for defamation and battery.
The new ruling from Kaplan is in connection to an upcoming defamation trial on Jan. 16 in which Carroll is seeking $10 million in compensatory damages and possibly more in undefined punitive damages, according to AP News. The jury will be considering the damages for Carroll regarding Trump’s previous remark after last year’s verdict, as well as from 2019 following Carroll’s public accusations of the former president, the outlet reported.
The New York judge stated that his ruling was based on the fact that Trump had previously been deemed liable for defamation within the 2023 trial, concluding the rape allegation was not relevant, The Daily Beast reported. (RELATED: DOJ Has Shelled Out Nearly Four Times More Taxpayer Dollars On Trump Investigations Compared To Biden Probe)
“Whether Mr. Trump forcibly and without Ms. Carroll’s consent penetrated her vagina with his fingers—as the Carroll II jury and the Court both found—or also with his penis has nothing to do with injury inflicted on her by the defamatory statements,” Kaplan wrote, according to the outlet.
Trump’s lawyers previously requested a delay for the upcoming trial, requesting additional time to consider alternative options, according to The Daily Beast. However, a federal appeals court denied the request last week, the outlet reported.
The former president responded to the ruling Saturday at an Iowa event, calling out Kaplan as a “radical Democrat” and stated that it was “all made up,” according to AP News.