RAPE TRIAL JURORS TO BE ANONYMOUS
Judge in Carroll suit cites attacks on jurist in Don’s hush money case as reason to hide identities of jury
Donald Trump and E. Jean Carroll’s lawyers will not know jurors’ identities at their upcoming civil rape trial, citing recent threats to the judge overseeing Trump’s criminal case and his family following Trump’s remarks about them.
Manhattan Federal Court Judge Lewis Kaplan on Monday said the likelihood of potential issues underlying his March 23 decision to keep secret the names of New Yorkers who will weigh Trump’s civil rape case “only has increased.”
“That is so in view of Mr. Trump’s public statements, characterized by the media as attacks against the New York State judge presiding over the recently filed New York State criminal case against Mr. Trump and the threats reportedly then made, presumably by Mr. Trump’s supporters, against that judge and members of his family,” Kaplan wrote, denying a joint request from Trump and Carroll’s legal teams to know the jurors’ names.
Within hours of his criminal court arraignment last week, Trump singled out State Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan and his relatives at a Mar-a-Lago speech, alleging their involvement in an unfounded Democratic conspiracy.
Trump’s comments came after Merchan appealed to his lawyers in front of him in court, asking him to tone down recent rhetoric. The Daily News reported Friday that those comments came amid a flood of death threats against Merchan, mirroring ones against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. In a separate ruling, Kaplan said Trump and Carroll must decide by Apr. 20 whether and when they plan to attend the upcoming trial.
Kaplan’s order noted neither party is legally obliged to be there. And the judge said it did not attempt to suggest legal consequences might result either way.
It has “not yet” been decided whether Trump will attend, according to his lawyer Joe Tacopina, who declined to comment on Kaplan’s decision regarding the jurors’ names.
Asked whether Carroll plans to be there, her lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, said, “Of course,” declining comment on the anonymous jury.
Carroll’s November 2022 suit against Trump includes sexual battery and defamation claims. She has accused him of raping her inside a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman on Fifth Ave. in the mid-1990s and slandering her as a liar in comments made post-presidency. Trump denies everything.
Carroll’s rape case against Trump was the first filed under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which lifted the statute of limitations to bring sexual assault claims for one year.
Kaplan has said Carroll’s lawyers may call two women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct as witnesses at the trial and play the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape for the jury, in which Trump bragged about molesting women.
The first lawsuit Carroll filed against
Trump in 2019 — which included a defamation claim and was initially slated for trial Monday — has been put on hold pending a decision from the D.C. Court of Appeals.
The original suit, bogged down incessantly by appeals, accuses Trump of defaming Carroll from the White House when he infamously denied the rape because she was not his “type.”
The D.C. court will rule on whether Trump was speaking in his capacity as president when he made the comments — and was thus shielded from litigation — or whether he made them as Trump, the individual, and can be sued as a private citizen. Biden’s Justice Department has continued to defend Trump’s side of the argument.
The trial slated for April 25 comes as Trump’s legal threats continue to mount.
He pleaded not guilty last week in the porn star case to 34 felony charges brought by a state grand jury the week before. The charges accuse him of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels ahead of his 2016 election as president, which violated election laws.
A state-level Georgia investigation into his effort to overturn his loss in the 2021 presidential election is believed to be nearing a conclusion.
And Trump faces a federal investigation by special prosecutor Jack Smith, probing his influence on the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection of the U.S. Capitol and highly sensitive classified documents he brought to Mar-a-Lago from the White House.