Judge Lewis Kaplan dismissed a motion from a Donald Trump ally to dismiss E. Jean Carroll's 2019 defamation case because he's being persecuted for being a white Christian.
Court documents uploaded on Thursday revealed Kaplan's decision to dismiss the demands of far-right Trump pal, James H. Brady. He has been described by the New York Post as "a gadfly who clogs courts with 'vexatious' claims." It goes on to claim that the man "has filed so many repetitive lawsuits he’s been ordered to stop and sanctioned in both state and federal courts..."
Writing to Judge Kaplan, Brady said: "I am making this motion to intervene in the case of Carroll v. Trump, 20-cv-7311, because I am unwilling to sit silent and watch another white Christian be treated as poorly and unfairly as I personally have been treated in the New York State and Federal Courts."
Judge Kaplan replied in less than 24 hours, telling Brady, "There are only two legal bases on which one may intervene in a civil action. The first is intervention as of right, which is available only to one who 'is given an unconditional right to intervene by a federal statute' or 'claims an interest relating to the property or transaction that is the subject of the action, and is so situated that disposing of the action may as a practical matter impair or impede the movant's ability to protect its interest, unless the existing parties adequately represent that interest.'"
He goes on to say the second is "by permission of the court, which in an appropriate case may be granted if the putative intervenor 'is given a conditional right by a federal statute' or 'has a claim or defense that shares with the main action a common question of law or fact.' Mr. Brady does not satisfy any of these criteria. Accordingly, this motion is denied."
The 2019 case is Carroll's first effort to sue Trump for defaming her, but it happened while Trump was still in office. Therefore, Trump claimed he couldn't be tried because he was the president. The case was taken to several appeals courts until, finally, it was decided that Trump was not defaming Carroll in his capacity as president of the United States, but as an individual.
The most recent decision by the jury that delivered a combination of nearly $5 million in damages to Carroll was from her second claim of defamation. That came after Trump was out of office. The first claim from Carroll is expected to deliver a higher judgment because it reportedly involved information about how it impacted Carroll's job and finances.
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A third complaint has been filed following comments on his social media site and at the CNN town hall in which Trump allegedly defamed her again. Carroll's lawyer, Robbie Kaplan (no relation to Lewis Kaplan), said that it is rare that someone continues to defame someone after more than one judgment is issued, so there isn't a lot of case law to turn to. Still, they've filed a third case.
In response to that court filing, Trump attacked Carroll again.
