E. Jean Carroll defamation case: Judge denies Trump's motion for mistrial

After Judge Kaplan adjourned the trial until Tuesday due to COVID-19 concerns, defense attorney Alina Habba asked him to postpone former President Trump's testimony until Wednesday because "tomorrow is the New Hampshire primary."

Trump, sitting at the defense table, appeared visibly irritated, actively conferring with Habba before she raised concerns about the timing.

The judge did not immediately rule on her request.

Carroll's attorneys opposed the delay.

The judge also denied the defense's latest motion for a mistrial, which they filed on Friday.

"The defense made a motion for a mistrial, again," the judge said. "That motion is denied."

Trump spent an additional 30 minutes inside the courthouse after the trial was adjourned, then drove off in his motorcade.

Court is adjourned Monday due to health concerns on the part of several participants.

The proceedings will resume Tuesday, pending everyone's good health, Judge Lewis Kaplan announced.

A juror reported feeling "hot and nauseous," so the judge sent him home for the day with instructions to get a COVID-19 test.

Additionally, defense attorney Alina Habba reported she is not feeling well. One or both of her parents had COVID-19 and she was exposed at a dinner with them three days ago, she said.

Habba said she had a fever 48 hours ago but a court-administered COVID-19 test this morning came back negative.

"We will not take testimony today," Kaplan said.

Former President Trump sat between Habba and her law partner Michael Madaio as the judge made the announcement.

"See you tomorrow, I hope," Judge Kaplan said.

If Donald Trump takes the stand as expected today, the judge in the case is likely to closely supervise his testimony based on the ground rules the judge has laid down for the trial.

Judge Lewis Kaplan, who threatened to throw Trump out of the courtroom last week for making comments within earshot of the jury, established in a pretrial ruling that Trump is barred from arguing that he did not sexually abuse Carroll or that he never met her.

As Judge Kaplan has instructed the jury, it is not their responsibility to determine the truthfulness of Carroll's allegations because a jury last year already found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and then defaming her; their job is only to determine whether Trump will have to pay Carroll additional damages beyond the $5 million awarded in the earlier trial.

According, Kaplan ruled, Trump cannot argue that he believed the two statements he made in June 2019 denying Carroll's allegations.

Instructing the jury last week on the facts of the case, Kaplan said, "Because you must accept them as true, this trial is not a do-over of the previous trial which determined those facts. What remains for you to decide are only two very limited issues relating to damages for Mr. Trump's publication of those two statements."

E. Jean Carroll's attorney has asked the judge in the case to promptly deny former President Trump's request for a mistrial.

In a letter to the judge on Sunday, lawyer Roberta Kaplan accused Trump's defense team of creating a "spectacle" when they requested a mistrial in front of the jury last week.

On Friday, Trump attorney Alina Habba, in a written request, renewed her request for a mistrial in the case by arguing that Carroll failed to preserve evidence when she deleted some the death threats she received after she accused Trump of sexual assault in 2019.

In her response, Carroll's attorney argued that Carroll's testimony has been consistent with her past statements, and Habba merely muddled the issue during her cross-examination.

"This muddled testimony, which resulted from muddled and shouted questions, is hardly sufficient to carry Mr. Trump's burden of demonstrating that Ms. Carroll deleted evidence when she was under an obligation to preserve it," Kaplan wrote.

Kaplan added that Carroll had not filed her lawsuit when she initially deleted some of the death threats that filled her inbox in 2019, and that Habba's request to preclude the jury from considering damages for the death threats would unfairly limit the jury's role.