It could be a doozy
The New York author who claims Donald Trump raped her in the 1990s said she found out he intends to submit evidence at trial regarding her “sexual predisposition” in violation of court rules, while the former president signaled he won’t be there in person.
E. Jean Carroll’s lawyers learned last week that Trump’s legal team plans to show the jury excerpts of her deposition that would “squarely” break rules against introducing evidence that’s intended to “prove that a victim engaged in other sexual behavior” or to show their “sexual predisposition,” Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan said in a filing Wednesday in Manhattan federal court.
Kaplan filed details of the disputed evidence separately under seal. The federal rules of evidence are intended to prevent “embarrassment for victims of sexual assault or otherwise publicly reinforce offensive sexual stereotypes about them,” Kaplan wrote.
Both Carroll and Trump are making last-minute preparations for a rare trial that’s set to start April 25. The former president sent a letter to the judge earlier Wednesday asking the court to give the jury a special instruction that Trump was “excused” from attending in order to avoid disruption, so the jury won’t think negatively of his absence. Trump wants to attend, his lawyer said, but the “logistical and financial burdens on New York” would be significant.
In a separate letter, Kaplan blasted Trump’s request, saying he managed to speak at a recent National Rifle Association meeting, attend an Ultimate Fighting Championship event in Miami, was deposed in Lower Manhattan in a separate lawsuit and is scheduled to speak in New Hampshire next week.
“If Mr. Trump decides not to appear at his own trial for sexual assault and defamation, the jury may draw whatever inferences it chooses — and Mr. Trump has no right to a judicial endorsement of his (flimsy) excuse,” Kaplan wrote.
I don’t know if he should appear or not. I suspect it would just be another opportunity for him to raise money. And if he is unable to defame her as a whore in the courtroom I’m sure there will be tens of millions of others who will do it for him, with or without evidence. Whether that gets to a jury is another story.
There’s a lot of hand wringing over these first trials being over paying hush money to a porn star he slept with and this rape charge from the 90s. They aren’t considered “serious” enough. We’ll have to see how they go. (I suspect that if these cases came later everyone would be handwringing over how they make it look like piling on.) But I feel there’s justice in Trump finally having to answer for his piggish behavior toward women over many years and I’m glad to see it one way or the other.