In a longshot bid, former President Donald Trump is asking the judge overseeing E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case against him to significantly reduce the US$83.3 million (A$128.1 million) jury award or grant a new trial.
Trump argued that Judge Lewis Kaplan wrongly prohibited him from defending himself during his brief testimony and that warrants a new trial.
In court filings Tuesday, Trump’s lawyers said Kaplan erred when he stopped Trump from testifying about “his own state of mind” and when he gave an “erroneous jury instruction on the definition of common-law malice.” Trump’s lawyers said the jury should have been told they needed to find that it was Trump’s “sole, exclusive desire to harm” Carroll.
“This Court’s erroneous decision to dramatically limit the scope of President Trump’s testimony almost certainly influenced the jury’s verdict, and thus a new trial is warranted,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
Before the trial began, Kaplan restricted Trump’s testimony, saying he could not deny raping Carroll or deny making the defamatory statements following a judgment that was already determined by a different jury in 2023. The judge made the attorneys preview what questions Trump would be asked and what his answers would be. In the end, Trump answered just a handful of questions.
The new legal effort comes as Trump has asked Kaplan for more time to post the bond, which is due shortly. Trump asked the judge to give him 30 days after the judge rules on post-trial briefs. Carroll opposed the request, saying Trump hasn’t provided any evidence that he can afford the payment. The judge is weighing the request.