Trump lawyer seeks mistrial in E. Jean Carroll rape lawsuit
Former President Donald Trump’s attorney requested a mistrial Monday in E. Jean Carroll’s civil rape case against the ex-commander-in-chief – citing “pervasive unfair and prejudicial rulings” by the Manhattan federal court judge.
Attorney Joe Tacopina said in a letter obtained by The Post that he would ask Judge Lewis Kaplan to “correct the record for each and every instance in which the Court has mischaracterized the facts of this case to the jury” or provide him greater leeway in cross-examining Carroll.
“Here, despite the fact trial testimony has been underway for only two days, the proceedings are already replete with numerous explains of Defendant’s unfair treatment by the Court, most of which has been witnessed by the Jury,” he wrote.
Carroll, 79, testified last week that Trump raped her in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman department store in midtown Manhattan, most likely in the spring of 1996.
She has alleged that he defamed her when he denied her claim, said she wasn’t his type, and suggested she concocted the story to boost sales of her 2019 memoir.
The former president has denied any wrongdoing.
Carroll will take the stand Monday for a second day of cross-examination by Tacopina, who argued that he should have been allowed to explore why she did not pursue security footage from the store and why she did not go to the police after the alleged incident.
“[P]roof that Plaintiff never attempted to determine if any such footage of the parties existed constitutes circumstantial evidence that her accusation is false,” he said in the latter.
The attorney also questioned Kaplan’s admonishment of a social media post by Eric Trump that revealed LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman is funding Carroll’s case.
“Eric Trump’s tweet was either factually accurate or protected opinion,” Tacopina wrote.
Carroll has testified that she would have kept her allegation secret forever if not for the #MeToo movement, which gained prominence in 2017.
During testimony last week, she grew frustrated as Tacopina pressed her on how she claims she reacted to an attack from Trump.
“You can’t beat up on me because I didn’t scream,” Carroll told him after insisting earlier that she was “not a screamer — I’m a fighter.”
In his mistrial request, Tacopina also complained that the judge shut down his questioning when he pushed Carroll to explain why she did not scream.
A rep for Carroll declined to comment to The Post.
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