U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan on Tuesday ordered attorneys for Donald Trump and E. Jean Carroll not to "incite violence."
On the first day of Trump's civil rape trial, Kaplan gave last-minute instructions to the attorneys before bringing in 48 anonymous potential jurors.
"Judge Lewis Kaplan is about to bring in 48 jurors for voir dire. Before calling them in, he told both parties and their lawyers to 'refrain from making any statements that will incite violence or civil unrest,' echoing concerns he raised when he mandated using an anonymous jury," Bloomberg correspondent Erik Larson reported from the courthouse.
Kaplan took the unusual step of ordering an anonymous jury in March due to a "very strong risk" of harrassment.
“On the basis of the unprecedented circumstances in which this trial will take place, including the extensive pretrial publicity and a very strong risk that jurors will fear harassment, unwanted invasions of their privacy and retaliation,” Kaplan wrote in his order, “there is strong reason to believe that the jury needs the protection.”
