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

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

"Despite being served with a subpoena in connection with this action, Plaintiff failed to take reasonable steps to preserve relevant evidence. In fact, she did much worse -- she actively deleted evidence which she now attempts to rely on in establishing her damages claim," Habba wrote in a letter to Judge Lewis Kaplan Friday.

Habba originally requested a mistrial during her cross-examination of Carroll on Wednesday, which Kaplan immediately denied.

Carroll explained during cross-examination that she deleted some emails and messages that were "filled with threats" before 2023.

"I deleted them early on because I didn't know how to handle death threats. I had no idea," Carroll testified. "I thought deleting them was the smartest, best, quickest way to get it out of my life."

Renewing her request in writing Friday, Habba asked for Judge Kaplan to either declare a mistrial, preclude Carroll from seeking damages based on the death threats, or instruct the jury about the "spoliation of relevant evidence."

Concluding her testimony after two days on the witness stand, E. Jean Carroll offered no remarks to reporters as she exited court, briefly hugging her lawyers before entering an SUV.

Speaking outside court, Donald Trump's counsel Boris Epshteyn said he doubted that Judge Lewis Kaplan would follow through on his threat to kick Trump out of the courtroom should the former president testify on Monday when court resumes.

"I have absolutely zero concerns," Epshteyn said. "President Trump has the right to defend himself."

Donald Trump's defense attorneys contested the conclusion of a plaintiff's expert who said restoring E. Jean Carroll's reputation would cost as much as $12 million.

Defense attorney Michael Madaio challenged the validity of Northwestern University professor Ashlee Humphreys' report, suggesting that it failed to consider Carroll's increased social media following and career prospects after she accused Trump of rape.

Madaio also argued that some of the negative attention Humphreys calculated really came from articles about the allegation, and not from Trump's statements denying the claim.

"It's likely more people know her name," Humphreys allowed.

Humphreys also conceded that she had never, herself, carried out a reputation repair campaign.

"Do you have any real-world experience other than being a professor?" Madaio asked. "Have you ever applied the methodologies in the report in the real world?"

"No," Humphreys responded. "I teach students how to apply these methodologies."

At several points during the cross-examination, Judge Kaplan expressed frustration with Madaio's questions and the pace of his cross-examination.

"We're now wasting time -- big time," Kaplan thundered at one point.

Court was subsequently adjourned for the day after Humphreys stepped down from the witness stand. The trial is scheduled to resume on Monday.

Former President Trump's defamatory denial of E. Jean Carroll's rape allegation was seen online as many as 25 million times and 63 million times on television, causing "severe" damage to Carroll's reputation that would cost more than $12 million to repair, an expert called by Carroll's attorneys testified.

The expert, Northwestern University professor Ashlee Humphreys, said Trump's statements reached between 85 and 104 million people. Not everyone believed them -- maybe a fifth to a quarter -- but they altered the associations attached to Carroll's name, Humphreys said.

Before June 2019, Humphreys said Carroll was known as a journalist, a "truth-teller and sassy advice columnist." After her allegation became public and Trump responded to it, Carroll was publicly associated with being a liar or a Democratic operative, Humphreys said.

"I found that damage to her reputation was severe and the costs to repair it were considerable," Humphreys testified. She estimated it would cost $12 million to repair Carroll's reputation by placing positive messages about her on television, with social media influencers and on blogs.