Trump Barred From Denying Abuse at Carroll Defamation Trial

(Bloomberg) -- A judge ordered former President Donald Trump not to attempt to argue in court that he didn’t sexually assault writer E. Jean Carroll, when her long-running defamation suit against him goes to trial next week.

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US District Judge Lewis Kaplan said Tuesday the proceeding wouldn’t be a “do over” of a separate trial Trump lost last May, when a jury held him liable for sexually abusing Carroll more than two decades ago. The second trial alleges Trump defamed Carroll by calling her a liar from the White House in 2019.

“Mr. Trump is precluded from offering any testimony, evidence, or argument suggesting or implying that he did not sexually assault Ms. Carroll, that she fabricated her account of the assault, or that she had any motive to do so,” the judge said in the ruling in Manhattan.

Kaplan already ruled that Trump is liable for defaming Carroll, so the jury trial starting Jan. 16 will only determine how much he must pay for harming her reputation. She is seeking at least $12 million. That’s on top of the $5 million Carroll was awarded in the previous sexual-abuse trial, which also included a defamation claim over something he said about her after leaving office.

The trial is one of six Trump is facing as he campaigns to return to the White House in the November presidential election. He continues to deny attacking Carroll and claims all the cases are part of a Democratic “witch hunt” to undermine him politically.

Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read More: Trump’s Boasts About Wealth May Be Evidence in Carroll Trial

Kaplan’s ruling also bars Trump and his lawyers from making arguments at trial concerning Carroll’s choice of lawyer and the way her litigation was financed. Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, has close ties to the Democratic Party and accepted funding for the case from Reid Hoffman, the billionaire co-founder of LinkedIn and a Democratic Party donor.

Trump’s defense team is also barred from presenting arguments “concerning Ms. Carroll’s past romantic relationships, sexual disposition, and prior sexual experiences,” the judge said. He also barred Trump from telling the jury anything about the long-running dispute over Carroll’s attempt earlier in the case to get a DNA sample from the former president.

A federal appeals court this week denied Trump’s last-ditch effort to derail the trial based on his argument that he has presidential immunity from Carroll’s claims. He may eventually ask the Supreme Court to review the decision.

The verdict the jury returned in favor of Carroll last May found Trump liable for sexual abuse but not rape as technically defined under New York law. Trump has since publicly claimed that verdict shows that he didn’t rape Carroll, and his lawyers hoped to argue that before the jury at the second trial.

The judge disagreed, saying the earlier jury believed Trump attacked her.

“Consequently, the fact that Mr. Trump sexually abused — indeed raped — Ms. Carroll has been conclusively established, and is binding in this case,” Kaplan said.

The trial is one of six, both civil and criminal, that Trump is facing as he campaigns to return to the White House.

(Updates with detail from the judge’s ruling.)

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