A federal judge presiding over the lawsuit initiated by E. Jean Carroll, the writer, has pointed out that the previous president did not comply with previous court orders to remain silent in other legal matters, which may result in potential harassment.
A federal judge in Manhattan issued a ruling on Friday that the jury in an upcoming defamation trial involving Donald J. Trump will be kept anonymous for the jurors’ safety, due to the potential for harassment from the former president’s supporters.
In the decision to have an anonymous jury, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of Federal District Court pointed out that Mr. Trump had been fined twice for violating a gag order issued by a New York judge overseeing a civil fraud trial in state court. This was in response to comments made by Mr. Trump regarding the judge’s clerk.
Judge Kaplan’s ruling coincided with the statement from the state judge, Arthur F. Engoron, who revealed that he had received numerous “harassing and threatening phone calls, voicemails, emails, letters, and packages” after Mr. Trump and his lawyers criticized him.
The need for an anonymous jury arises from a civil trial scheduled to commence on January 16. This trial originates from a lawsuit filed by writer E. Jean Carroll, who alleged that Mr. Trump defamed her in 2019 after she publicly accused him of raping her in the mid-1990s in a department store dressing room. In response to Ms. Carroll’s accusation, Mr. Trump claimed he had never met her and called her accusation “totally false.”
It’s worth noting that Ms. Carroll has already won a separate defamation lawsuit against Mr. Trump, in which a jury found that he defamed her by posting a statement on his Truth Social platform, referring to her rape allegation as “a complete con job” and “a Hoax and a lie.” The jury awarded Ms. Carroll $2.98 million in defamation damages. While the jury did not find Mr. Trump guilty of rape, they held him liable for sexually abusing her in the department store dressing room, awarding her $2.02 million in damages. Mr. Trump has appealed the jury’s verdict.
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Judge Kaplan, in his Friday ruling, cited the same reasons he gave for ordering an anonymous jury in Ms. Carroll’s first trial. These reasons include Mr. Trump’s repeated attacks on judges, courts, law enforcement officials, and even jurors in various legal matters. Additionally, Judge Kaplan expressed concerns about the potential for unwanted media attention, influence attempts, harassment, or worse by Mr. Trump’s supporters or even by Mr. Trump himself if the jurors’ identities were disclosed.
Judge Kaplan also referred to Mr. Trump’s repeated statements about Ms. Carroll and the court, both in her case and in other cases brought against him. In addition to the civil fraud trial in New York, Mr. Trump faces four criminal indictments in Georgia, New York State courts, and federal courts in Washington, D.C., and Florida. Mr. Trump has pleaded not guilty to these charges.
Roberta A. Kaplan, the lawyer representing Ms. Carroll, declined to comment on the judge’s order, and a spokeswoman for Mr. Trump’s lawyer had no immediate comment. Judge Kaplan had previously ruled that Ms. Carroll does not have to prove Mr. Trump’s defamation a second time and only needs to establish the damages, if any, he must pay for his 2019 comments.
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