Former President Donald Trump’s legal team on Monday requested a mistrial in his civil trial for rape and defamation, claiming the judge made “pervasive unfair and prejudicial rulings” against him.
The filing was made at dawn just hours before Mr. Trump’s lawyers resumed cross-examination of E. Jean Carroll who says the former president raped her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s and later defamed her when he denied allegations.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly insisted the assault never happened and has accused Ms. Carroll of lying to boost sales of her book.
In a letter to Manhattan District Judge Lewis Kaplan, defense attorney Joe Tacopina said he should have been allowed to press Ms. Carroll on the stand about why she didn’t pursue the store’s security camera footage and why she didn’t go to the police following the alleged rape.
Mr. Tacopina said any efforts Ms. Carroll made to try to obtain the security footage would corroborate her claim that there was no one on the sixth floor at the time of the alleged assault.
“Proof that the plaintiff never attempted to determine if any such footage of the parties existed constitutes circumstantial evidence that her accusation is false,” Mr. Tacopina wrote.
Mr. Tacopina said it was “prejudicial” that Judge Kaplan isn’t giving him greater leeway in cross-examining Ms. Carroll, saying he’s being treated unfairly in front of the jury.
He added that the judge should “correct the record for each and every instance in which the court has mischaracterized the facts of this case to the jury.”
Mr. Tacopina also expressed concern over the judge’s admonishment of a social media post by Eric Trump revealing that LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, a major Democrat donor, is funding Ms. Carroll’s case.
“Eric Trump’s tweet was either factually accurate or protected opinion,” Mr. Tacopina wrote.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.