Lawyers for former President Donald Trump have asked a judge to delay the start of a sexual assault and defamation trial by a month to allow a “cooling off” period following Trump’s landmark indictment of falsifying business records.
Joe Tacopina, Trump’s lawyer, asked the judge overseeing the assault and defamation lawsuit filed by former columnist E. Jean Carroll to delay the trial until the end of May. The start of the trial is scheduled for April 25th.
Tacopina said the group of prospective jurors will have criminal charges “in mind” when called due to intense media coverage and could be influenced by that. Trump was charged with falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments made to Stormy Daniels to prevent her from going public with an affair days before the 2016 presidential election. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
“To be sure, President Trump is a persistent topic of media coverage. But the current situation is unique because, as noted, recent coverage concerns alleged sexual misconduct, the very issue that is at the center of this litigation,” Tacopina said in his letter to Judge Lewis Kaplan.
