NEW YORK — A lawyer for Donald Trump signaled Wednesday that the previous president is unlikely to attend a civil trial subsequent week through which a columnist has accused him of raping her in a division retailer dressing room within the Nineteen Nineties.

Attorney Joe Tacopina requested the decide who will preside over the trial beginning Tuesday if he would inform jurors that Trump’s absence was designed to keep away from logistical burdens that New York City and the court docket system would face if Trump had been current.

Tacopina didn't rule out that Trump might nonetheless attend the trial, saying jurors must be informed that his “presence is excused unless and until he is called by either party to testify.”

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan had instructed attorneys to say by Thursday whether or not their shoppers will seem for all or a portion of the trial.

E. Jean Carroll, who for the primary time publicly revealed the rape claims in a 2019 memoir, has stated via her attorneys that she is going to attend your entire trial.

Trump has repeatedly insisted he by no means met Carroll on the retailer and that he didn’t know who she was.

Tacopina stated in a letter to Kaplan that Trump “wishes to appear at trial,” however jurors must be informed that whereas no litigant is required to seem for a civil trial, “the absence of the defendant in this matter, by design, avoids the logistical burdens that his presence, as the former president, would cause the courthouse and New York City.”

Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, mocked the request that jurors must be informed Trump just isn't attending the trial “as some sort of favor to the City of New York.”

She famous that New York City and the Manhattan federal courts have hosted main trials, together with some pertaining to infamous terrorists, with out incident. And she stated she gained’t be calling Trump to the stand to testify as a witness as a result of she will be able to depend on displaying jurors parts of his four-hour videotaped deposition.

“If Mr. Trump decides not to appear at his own trial for sexual assault and defamation, the jury may draw whatever inferences it chooses,” wrote the lawyer, who just isn't associated to the decide.

She added that it was tough to credit score his arguments in mild of his current journey schedule.

“If Mr. Trump can find a way to attend wrestling championships, political conventions, civil depositions, and campaign functions, then surely he could surmount the logistics of attending his own federal trial,” she stated.

Copyright © 2023 The Washington Times, LLC.

Content Source: www.washingtontimes.com