Monday, a federal judge in New York denied former President Donald Trump’s request to delay the trial in the defamation and battery complaint filed by former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll.
Trump requested a postponement of the trial in Carroll’s defamation and battery suit, citing the intense media coverage of his indictment in Manhattan last month and the need for a “cooling off” period.
The trial was scheduled to begin on April 25, but he requested a one-month postponement. However, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, a senior judge in the Southern District of New York appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1994, denied the request, stating, “There is no justification for an adjournment. This case has nothing to do with the state prosecution.”
“Developments in at least one of these matters, as well as actions and statements by Mr. Trump in relation to any, may well give rise to intense publicity that, in some respects, Mr. Trump might claim to be prejudicial in this case,” Kaplan noted. “Mr. Trump’s suggestion that a one-month trial postponement, in this case, would ensure the absence of any such developments in the period immediately preceding jury selection is not realistic.”
Last week, it was disclosed that Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn and Democratic megadonor, secretly funded Carroll’s lawsuit against Trump.
The Daily Beast reported that, according to court documents filed on Thursday, Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and now a significant Democratic Party donor, has been secretly funding E. Jean Carroll’s rape case.
The most recent revelations were made during a heated correspondence between the attorneys for Carroll and Trump, who are presently debating whether or not to postpone the two-week trial.
It is uncertain whether Hoffman’s financial support will affect the outcome of the case, but the disclosure of the previously undisclosed funding is likely to bolster Trump’s claims that affluent Democrats are working behind the scenes to undermine him, according to the outlet.
Hoffman, a prominent Silicon Valley entrepreneur, founded the professional social network LinkedIn. In addition to being a prominent Democratic donor, he has made it his mission to weaken Trump’s grasp on the Republican Party. According to Vox, Hoffman’s opposition to Trump’s policies has strained his friendship with fellow Silicon Valley figure Peter Thiel, who has funded conservative causes and candidates.
In the 1990s, Carroll, a veteran magazine columnist, claims Trump assaulted her in the dressing room of an upscale Manhattan department store. She detailed her experience in a tell-all memoir, which prompted Trump to label her a fraud from the White House, according to The Daily Beast. Nearly four years have passed since Carroll filed a defamation lawsuit against him.
Wow. Reid Hoffman, funder of various Democratic disinfo operations https://t.co/a8Cuc8qsd4
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) April 13, 2023
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With the passage of a new rape survivor law in New York, which extended the statute of limitations on private civil lawsuits, Carroll filed a new lawsuit seeking a trial that would potentially award her monetary compensation but, more importantly, label the powerful real estate magnate seeking a second presidential term as a rapist. CONTINUE READING…
