US: Donald Trump's defamation trial delayed until Wednesday over judge's illness
Jan 22, 2024
New York [US], January 23 : The defamation trial by Jean Carroll against former US President Donald Trump was delayed until Wednesday after a juror fell ill, New York Times reported.
The decision was announced by the federal court in Manhattan late Monday, however, no reason was given by Judge Lewis A Kaplan.
The decision followed uncertainty over the condition of the juror and a request from Trump to postpone the trial because of the Republican primary in New Hampshire on Tuesday, as per NYT.
The Carroll trial, which is in its second week, was suspended for the day after the juror reported flulike symptoms.
Trump had said he wanted to testify, but his lawyer, Alina Habba, said in court Monday morning that he would not be able to take the stand on Tuesday because of the primary, according to NYT.
The trial is being held in Manhattan courthouse to decide upon the amount of money Trump must pay Carroll for allegedly defaming her in 2019. Notably, it was the same year when she first accused him of raping her decades earlier in a department store dressing room.
In May last year, jurors in a separate trial awarded Carroll a little more than USD 2 million after finding Trump liable for sexually abusing her. They also found that Trump had defamed her in separate instances and awarded her USD 3 million in damages for those, the New York Times reported.
Judge Kaplan, who has presided over both cases, ruled that the defamation finding in the previous trial would carry over to the current one, limiting what Trump could say on the stand.
Meanwhile, Trump's and Carroll's lawyers have been debating the parameters of what the former president should be allowed to discuss.
Judge Kaplan has said that Trump cannot dispute Carroll's version of events like he has done in social media posts, campaign speeches and news conferences, where he has called her a liar who fabricated her story of the rape in order to sell a book, NYT reported.
Carroll is asking for a minimum of USD 10 million in damages.
