Trump's legal team calls for mistrial in E. Jean Carroll case, claiming judge restricted testimony from former president

On January 27, a New York grand jury ordered Donald Trump to pay $83 million to E. Jean Carroll for defamation. While U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan had already found the former president guilty, the nine members of the jury considered the damages in the case, which were finally quantified at the aforementioned sum. A little more than a month later, the Republican’s legal team has filed a new lawsuit to avoid the million-dollar payment.

The request is directly against Judge Kaplan, whom President Bill Clinton nominated. According to Trump’s lawyers, the judge restricted communication between Trump and the jury while he was on the bench.

Specifically, they referred to an exchange that took place just before the former president’s testimony, in which the judge wanted to know “everything (Trump) is going to say.” Thus, Kaplan reviewed every word of Trump’s testimony before the jurors heard it, even cutting off that testimony as it was being conducted. Ultimately, the defendant was on the stand for less than five minutes, and one of his answers was objected to.

As detailed by the legal team, the scope of their client’s testimony was greatly diminished, to the point of prejudicing and preventing him from addressing his state of mind regarding Carroll.

“Just before President Trump took the stand at trial, the Court engaged in a colloquy with defense counsel designed to restrict the scope of President Trump’s testimony,” the presidential candidate’s attorneys, Alina Habba and John Sauer, wrote in their Tuesday filing. Due to this conversation beforehand, the lawyers are calling for a new trial.

The text, of course, seeks to annul the aforementioned fine of US$83 million. As specified by the jury foreman at the time, the total figure was broken down as follows: $11 million for a reputation repair program, $7.3 million in other compensatory damages and $65 million in punitive damages.

Under existing federal court rules, efforts to collect the hefty amount could begin next week.