OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan has issued a ruling in the sexual assault case against former President Donald Trump, which has both positive and negative implications for him.
While the judge stated that Trump is not required to appear at the trial, he cannot cite the excuse of not wanting to place “burdens” on The Big Apple as the reason for his absence, the New York Post reported.
Kaplan’s decision was made in response to a request from Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, who had asked that the jurors be informed that Trump’s absence was due to his desire to avoid “logistical burdens.”
In a filing with the court, Tacopina requested that jurors be told: “While no litigant is required to appear at 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.”
“Accordingly, his presence is excused unless and until he is called by either party to testify,” the request noted further.
However, Kaplan, a Clinton appointee, ordered that for now at least, Trump’s legal team cannot use the argument of potential “burdens” if the former president decides not to attend the trial.
“Mr. Trump is free to attend, to testify, or both. He is free also to do none of those things,” Kaplan noted in the one-page order.
“In the meantime, there shall be no reference by counsel for Mr. Trump in the presence of the jury panel or the trial jury to Mr. Trump’s alleged desire to testify or to the burdens that any absence on his part allegedly might spare, or might have spared, the Court or the City of New York,” his order noted further.
Trump is scheduled to face trial in the Manhattan federal court over accusations of raping advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in the dressing room of Bergdorf Goodman department store during the 1990s, The Post noted.
Carroll has also claimed that Trump defamed her by making public statements about the allegations, which were initially disclosed in a 2019 book excerpt from New York Magazine.
Trump has denied the allegations.
That’s not the former president’s only problem in Manhattan, as he was charged earlier this month by District Attorney Alvin Bragg on charges related to hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.
One of Trump’s attorneys, Alina Habba, spoke to Fox News after the indictment was handed down by a Manhattan grand jury.
“You know, we have Letitia James, that’s probably the most prominent one that I want to discuss because that is, again, a corrupt system. They’re going after the Trump Organization, poor Allen Weisselberg is sitting in Rikers Island right now over what — valuations? This is a real estate company that has done extremely well, is successful, and they’re trying to take them and all of their individuals that lead that company down for nothing,” Habba noted.
“You know, they got three years of special proceeding investigations. They interviewed almost 60 people. We have five weeks,” she said. “This shows exactly how corrupt New York’s judicial system has become. The D.A.s and the A.G.s, Jim Jordan, I hope he brings in each and every one of them and asks them where the funding came from and how they think it’s appropriate to take funding away from the city that is now falling apart, which I used to love.
“They are taking funding away while people are dying and there is crime rampant in the streets to go after the leading GOP Republican candidate. It is unacceptable,” Habba added.
“That is, for me, the most important case I have. Other than that, you know, a lot of them are cases where we have to defend against things like election fraud, things like — I have a case in Pennsylvania, you know, somebody tweeted something and they sue Donald Trump. You know, I have a case against Mary Trump and The New York Times. I’m defending the case against E. Jean Carroll In three weeks on trial in New York. Again, the same thing, rapid, rapid trials,” she concluded.
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