一名纽约法官已经为唐纳德·特朗普在作家E. Jean Carroll的律师提出这位前总统出席周二开始的审判可能会“制造混乱”后，他在自己的诽谤审判中作证。
刘易斯·卡普兰法官表示，如有必要，他将批准延期审理，这样原定于本周结束的审判将被延长，以便特朗普可以在1月22日周一作证。
在另一项命令中，法官驳回了特朗普将审判推迟一周的请求，以便他能参加周四举行的前第一夫人梅兰妮·特朗普的母亲阿马利亚·纳夫斯的葬礼上周二去世经过长期的健康斗争。
“法庭向川普夫妇和纳夫斯女士的其他家人表示哀悼，”法官写道特朗普可以按照自己的意愿自由出席审判、葬礼或全部或部分出席。"
卡罗尔，前Elle杂志专栏作家，2019年11月起诉特朗普卡罗尔公开指控他20世纪90年代在曼哈顿百货公司更衣室强奸她后不久，他发表了上述言论。
去年5月，卡罗尔赢得了一项指控特朗普殴打和诽谤的相关案件，其依据是特朗普2022年在社交媒体上发表的一份声明，其中他再次指控她在所谓的袭击事件上撒谎。陪审团成员发现特朗普没有强奸卡罗尔，但对她进行了性虐待，并判她总额500万美元。特朗普否认所有不当行为，他正在对此案提出上诉。
本周的审判将决定特朗普因在2019年诽谤卡罗尔而欠她多少赔偿金，此前一名卡罗尔在9月赢得了一场诉讼部分即决判决根据去年案件的裁决对特朗普提起诉讼。
E.2023年5月9日，让·卡罗尔抵达纽约曼哈顿联邦法院。
约翰·明奇略/美联社档案
卡罗尔的律师担心特朗普可能会在本周的法庭诉讼中“下毒”，因此要求采取“强有力的预防措施”，以防特朗普出席陪审团审判。
“如果特朗普先生出现在这次审判中，无论是作为证人还是其他身份，他最近的声明和行为都强烈表明他将寻求制造混乱。卡罗尔的律师罗伯塔·卡普兰写道:“事实上，他很可能从试图破坏这些诉讼中获利。”罗伯塔·卡普兰与法官没有关系。
卡罗尔的律师主张对特朗普的出席制定严格的规则，并引用了特朗普上周在纽约民事欺诈案审判中的行为致闭幕词这位律师说，这与法院的简易判决裁决相矛盾，攻击了诉讼程序的合法性，并违反了法官制定的基本规则。
卡罗尔的律师写道:“不难想象，特朗普先生正在准备在这里上演类似的表演——只是这次是在陪审团面前。”
在审判之前，卡普兰法官发布了一系列命令，限制特朗普及其律师的辩论内容。根据这些命令，特朗普不能声称他没有强奸卡罗尔，也不能否认他对她进行了性侵犯，或质疑她的动机，或声称她在撒谎。卡罗尔的律师认为，如果特朗普作证，他可能没有任何可行的论据，这表明此举将是使审判非法化的更广泛政治策略的一部分。
她写道，“虽然诽谤被告理论上可以提供关于他们缺乏财富的证词，希望尽可能减少惩罚性赔偿金，但特朗普在这里提供的任何此类证词都会与特朗普在其他地方的宣誓证词和公开声明相冲突。”
卡罗尔的律师要求法官警告特朗普违反禁止作证的法庭命令的后果，要求他指示特朗普的律师在特朗普作证前提供特朗普了解后果的证据，并要求特朗普作证记录他“性侵卡罗尔女士，并在指控她编造账户和质疑她的动机时以实际恶意撒谎。”
特朗普律师阿琳娜·哈巴在给法庭的一封信中回应称，这些请求是“为特朗普总统辩护并阻止他的法律团队为即将到来的审判做准备的绝望尝试。”
哈巴告诉法庭，特朗普“仍然可以为自己的辩护提供相当多的证词”，包括澄清他涉嫌诽谤言论的情况，并区分审判中提出的多起涉嫌性侵犯的案件。她补充说，卡罗尔团队提出的补救措施是“牵强的”，在陪审团面前执行是不合理的，包括迫使特朗普在记录中声明他性侵了卡罗尔。
“我们认为这不是一个第三世界国家的袋鼠法庭，在那里诉讼的一方被迫说出法院和对方希望他们说的话，”哈巴写道。“鉴于法院此前对此案的裁决，特朗普总统在审判中为自己辩护的能力已经受到严重限制。完全不让他出庭作证是明显的不公正，也明显侵犯了他的宪法权利。”
卡普兰法官拒绝采纳卡罗尔律师提出的措施，但发誓要确保审判过程中遵循法治。
法官写道:“法院将采取其认为适当的措施，以避免规避其裁决和法律。”
Judge clears way for Trump to testify at defamation trial that starts Tuesday
A New York judge has cleared the way forDonald Trumpto testify at his own defamation trial after lawyers for writer E. Jean Carroll raised concerns that the former president could "sow chaos" by attending the trial, which begins Tuesday.
Judge Lewis Kaplan said that, if necessary, he would grant a continuance so that the trial, which was initially scheduled to conclude this week, would be extended so Trump could testify on Monday, Jan. 22.
In a separate order, the judge rejected Trump's request to postpone the trial for a week so he could attend Thursday's funeral of Amalija Knavs, the mother of former first lady Melania Trump, whodied last Tuesdayafter a long health battle.
"The Court offers its condolences to Mr. and Mrs. Trump and the rest of Ms. Knavs' family," the judge wrote. "Mr. Trump is free to attend the trial, the funeral, or all or parts of both, as he wishes."
Carroll, a former Elle magazine columnist,sued Trump in November 2019over comments he made shortly after Carroll publicly accused him of raping her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the 1990s.
Last May, Carroll won a related case accusing Trump of battery and defamation based on a 2022 statement Trump made on social media in which he again accused her of lying about the alleged attack. Jury members found that Trump did not rape Carroll but sexually abused her, and awarded her atotal of $5 million. Trump, who has denied all wrongdoing, is appealing that case.
This week's trial will determine how much Trump owes Carroll in damages for defaming her in 2019, after a Carroll in September won apartial summary judgmentagainst Trump based on the ruling in last year's case.
Concerned that Trump might "poison" this week's court proceedings, Carroll's attorney had requested "robust prophylactic measures" in case Trump attends the jury trial.
"If Mr. Trump appears at this trial, whether as a witness or otherwise, his recent statements and behavior strongly suggest that he will seek to sow chaos. Indeed, he may well perceive a benefit in seeking to poison these proceedings," wrote Carroll's lawyer Roberta Kaplan, who is no relation to the judge.
In arguing for strict rules governing Trump's attendance, Carroll's attorney cited Trump's conduct last week at his New York civil fraud trial, where Trumpdelivered a closing statementthat the attorney said contradicted the court's summary judgment ruling, attacked the legitimacy of the proceedings, and violated the ground rules established by the judge.
"It takes little imagination to think that Mr. Trump is gearing up for a similar performance here -- only this time, in front of a jury," Carroll's attorney wrote.
In advance of the trial, Judge Kaplan had issued a series of orders limiting what Trump and his lawyers are allowed to argue. Per those orders, Trump cannot claim he did not rape Carroll, nor can he deny that he sexually assaulted her, or question her motives, or claim she was lying. With such testimony off the table, Carroll's attorney argued that Trump would likely have no feasible arguments that he could make if he testifies, suggesting the move would be part of a broader political tactic to delegitimize the trial.
"While a defamation defendant could theoretically offer testimony about their lack of wealth in the hope of minimizing a punitive damages award, any such testimony from Mr. Trump here would run headlong into Mr. Trump's sworn testimony and public statements elsewhere," she wrote.
Carroll's attorney asked that the judge warn Trump about the consequences of violating the court order against prohibited testimony, that he direct Trump's lawyers to provide proof of that Trump understands the consequences before Trump testifies, and that he require Trump to testify on the record that he "sexually assaulted Ms. Carroll, and that he spoke falsely with actual malice and lied when accusing her of fabricating her account and impugning her motives."
Responding in a letter to the court, Trump attorney Alina Habba described the requests as a "desperate attempt to pigeonhole President Trump's defense and to prevent his legal team from preparing for the upcoming trial."
Habba told the court that Trump "can still offer considerable testimony in his defense," including clarifying the circumstances of his allegedly defamatory statements and differentiating the alleged multiple instances of sexual assault raised at trial. She added that the remedies proposed by Carroll's team are "far-fetched" and unreasonable to enforce in front of a jury, including forcing Trump to state on the record that he sexually assaulted Carroll.
"We presume that this is not a kangaroo court of a third-world country where a party to a lawsuit is involuntarily made to say what a court and an opposing party wants them to say," Habba wrote. "Given the Court's prior rulings in this case, President Trump's ability to defend himself at trial is already severely limited. Precluding him from taking the stand altogether would be a manifest injustice and a clear violation of his constitutional rights."
Judge Kaplan declined to adopt the measures proposed by Carroll's lawyers but vowed to ensure the rule of law would be followed during the trial.
"The Court will take such measures as it finds appropriate to avoid circumvention of its rulings and of the law," the judge wrote.
