Trump event 'really undermines'  demand to delay trial for Melania's mom's funeral: expert

Donald Trump will stand trial once again this week for defaming a woman he sexually abused, and a legal expert threw cold water on his last-minute attempt to delay the case.

The former president's attorneys filed a request Friday afternoon asking U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan to push back the start date so that Trump can attend his mother-in-law's funeral. The request was denied and the trial will begin as scheduled on Tuesday.

MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin on Monday pulled apart what she said was a flimsy application.

"He certainly doesn't have to be there," Rubin said, noting that he has campaign events scheduled for Wednesday.

"Former president Trump said in a letter through his lawyer, Alina Habba, he needed to be with his family on Wednesday and Thursday in preparation for the funeral for Melania's mother. The problem, of course, is not only does he have a campaign event scheduled, but they scheduled the campaign event after the court rejected the request. It really undermines their explanation."

Rubin said most of the major issues at stake in the upcoming trial had already been decided at the trial of a previous defamation lawsuit, also filed by journalist E. Jean Carroll.

"In terms of what we expect this week, this is going to be a much shorter trial," Rubin said. "The reason is, most of the issues in dispute really have already been decided by a jury last May. It's not up for discussion whether Donald Trump sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll. It's not up for discussion whether Donald Trump defamed E. Jean Carroll and did so with malice. That, too, was decided by a jury.

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"All that is left to decide is a measure of damages with respect to the former president's defamation of E. Jean Carroll at two different points in time. One was while he was president in 2019, and that's because Donald Trump insisted that he was immune from any civil damages because he was president. It took a longer time to litigate that issue than it did to just try him last May for statements he made after he was no longer president.

"Of course, we know after that verdict, Donald Trump has continued to defame E. Jean Carroll, denying the sexual assault, calling her essentially a crazy person on multiple occasions, starting last May in a CNN town hall and continuing on through last week. He went on a social media cam page rampage about her."

"This is about money and how much of it E. Jean Carroll is going to walk away with," Rubin added. "Both to compensate her for the loss of her reputation, but even perhaps more importantly, to former president Trump, to punish former president Trump for continuing to say those same things about her."

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