New York (EFE).- The lawyers of former US President Donald Trump have asked to postpone for a month the trial scheduled for April 25 in which he is accused of raping the author E. Jean Carroll three decades ago and recently defaming her, according to a document released by the court on Wednesday.
Trump’s defense argues that his “right to a fair trial depends on a brief cooling off period” following the “barrage of damaging media coverage of his indictment” in the criminal case over alleged irregular payments to hush up harmful information ahead of the 2016 elections, which he won.
In the letter, addressed to Judge Lewis Kaplan, they point out that holding this trial at the end of April “will ensure that many, if not all, potential jurors” will have “in mind” the landmark indictment of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office regarding the alleged Trump’s “extra-marital affair” with porn actress Stormy Daniels.
The lawyers consider this a “unique situation” because “recent coverage relates to alleged sexual misconduct,” such as in the author’s litigation, adding that the sheer volume of news stemming from that case is generating increased interest in de Carroll.
The new date they ask for is May 23, at the earliest, calculating that a “window” of time opens in which the jury in the Carroll trial “will probably be more impartial” than now.
E. Jean Carroll’s impeachment of Trump
Carroll, 79, accused Trump of rape in a book and a magazine article in 2019, something he denied by publicly calling her a liar and making derogatory comments about her appearance, after which the author decided to launch a legal battle against him for defamation.
At the end of 2022, Carroll added to that lawsuit a new charge for injuries derived from the alleged rape as a legal period opened in New York to seek civil justice in cases related to sexual violence that until then had been prescribed.