Judge Lewis Kaplan told Donald Trump on Sunday that he could have the leeway to attend his mother-in-law's funeral but that he won't allow for the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial to be delayed.
Trump tried to delay the proceedings this week, citing funeral plans for Melania Trump's recently deceased mother. But, according to E. Jean Carroll and her lawyers, one of the days that Trump asked off wasn't for a funeral but for a rally in New Hampshire. The trial date for the case has been set for months.
"The court, for its part, saw through that, in no small part because it later learned Trump scheduled a N.H. rally for the evening of 1/17, when his counsel represented he needed to travel or simply be with his family," said MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin.
Trump never appeared in the first trial with Carroll, where the verdict was already decided for this case as well. Like the New York financial fraud trial, this week's proceedings are designed to decide how much Trump will be fined. Unlike the first Carroll trial, there was a jury involved, which decided that Trump had "sexually abused" Carroll.
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Trump maintains he doesn't know who she is and has never met her.
The judge explained that if Trump needs to testify, he can do so on Monday. The trial begins on Tuesday and there is no court on Fridays.
"That’s all it is: a minor accommodation so that Trump need not choose between the funeral and testifying. But otherwise, the relief Trump requested was denied," said Rubin.
