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The judge in the civil trial of E. Jean Carrol’s rape allegation against former President Donald J. Trump sharply criticized comments by Mr. Trump on social media about an hour before the trial resumed on Wednesday morning.
Mr. Trump posted twice about the lawsuit, calling it a scam and writing that Ms. Carroll’s lawyer was a “political operative.” He also said that the dress Ms. Carroll wore should be “allowed to be part of the case.”
The posts tested boundaries set forth Tuesday by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who instructed the parties to “inform your clients and witnesses to please refrain from making any statements that are likely to incite violence or civil unrest.” He said that he was especially concerned for the safety and privacy of jurors.
On Wednesday, the judge said Mr. Trump’s out-of-court statements seemed “entirely inappropriate” and suggested Mr. Trump might be trying to influence members of the jury.
“Your client is basically endeavoring certainly to speak to his quote-unquote public,” Judge Kaplan said, “but more troublesome, to the jury in this case, about stuff that has no business being spoken about.”
The judge appeared to be referring to a pretrial debate over whether DNA evidence would be allowed. Mr. Trump’s lawyers in early February offered to provide a sample in exchange for parts of a report Ms. Carroll commissioned about genetic material found on the dress she wore during the encounter. The judge in February rejected the offer, which came after a deadline to disclose evidence passed, saying it was a stalling tactic
When the issue arose in court on Wednesday because of Mr. Trump’s Truth Social posts, Judge Kaplan pointed out that for three years Mr. Trump had refused to give a DNA sample.
The exchange occurred before the jury entered the courtroom, after Ms. Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta A. Kaplan, brought the posts to the judge’s attention.
Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, said that he had not seen or been aware of the posts.
“I will speak to my client and ask him to refrain from any further posts regarding this case,” Mr. Tacopina said. “I will do the best I can do, your honor.”
Judge Kaplan responded that he hoped Mr. Tacopina would be successful because “we’re getting into an area conceivably in which your client may or may not be tampering with a new source of potential liability — and I think you know what I mean.”
The judge did not elaborate, but he could have been referring to the possibility of a contempt sanction.
It remained unclear on Wednesday whether Mr. Trump would testify in the trial in Federal District Court. Mr. Tacopina said the day before that he did not yet know whether Mr. Trump would take the witness stand. Judge Kaplan said that he wanted an answer this week, adding that not knowing was an “imposition” on security and court staff.
The trial is expected to last one to two weeks. On trial’s first day, the lawyers sparred in their opening statements over what exactly happened one evening nearly 30 years ago in a department store dressing room.
Ms. Carroll in a 2019 memoir, which was excerpted in a New York magazine article, accused Mr. Trump of raping her in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman store in the mid-1990s. Ms. Carroll wrote that he pushed her against a dressing room wall, pulled down her tights, opened his pants and then forced himself upon her.
Mr. Trump denied the allegations in 2019, calling it a “total false accusation.” He denied the allegations again in an October 2022 Truth Social post, calling the accusation a hoax and a lie, leading Ms. Carroll to sue him for both battery and defamation.
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