- Trump’s attorneys on Thursday asked to postpone E. Jean Carroll’s battery and defamation trial by a month.
- They said they wanted to investigate the Hoffman-backed nonprofit that funded Carroll’s defense.
- The judge ruled to reopen discovery, but did not postpone the April 25 trial date.
Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers have asked for a one-month delay to the trial of his second rape case in three days. This time, his accuser, E. Gene, is investigating a non-profit organization that court documents say he’s funding Carroll’s lawsuit.
In Thursday’s court filing, Trump’s attorneys said Carroll’s attorneys said the nonprofit, whose “primary backer” is billionaire LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, ” It was recently revealed that they had paid “certain costs and attorneys’ fees” to their company, so they asked for discovery to be reopened. , Kaplan Hecker & Fink.
Trump’s lawyers have claimed it will take another month to gather information about Carroll’s financial support. This was central to the defense that the case was a politically motivated “hoax,” which it argued from the beginning.
U.S. District Judge Louis A. Kaplan ruled later in the day to allow additional discovery for Trump’s team to investigate credibility issues. lawsuit was not funded by a third party). Beyond that, he ruled that funding was irrelevant to the case.
“The question of whether and when the plaintiff or her attorney obtained financial support in this case is not directly related to the ultimate merits of the case,” he wrote.
Carroll’s attorneys argued the funds were unrelated to the defamation and rape lawsuits, which depended on whether Trump raped her and called her a liar for making it public. It says the funds came from the rest of the grant that was originally used to fund another case.
They also claimed that Carroll himself never met the funder.
Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said: “Carroll has never met or communicated (written or verbal) with anyone associated with the nonprofit.”
It’s unclear how much of the funds given through Reed’s non-profit organization Kaplan Hecker & Fink used for Carroll’s lawsuit.
The nonprofit American Future Republic was founded by Hoffman in 2019 and had gross revenue of $21.9 million that year, according to public records. In 2020, the organization listed total assets at around $10 million, and he donated over $2 million to help Biden’s bid for president. According to CNBC.
Reid’s political philanthropy has a history of heavily supporting the Democrats “since the Republicans elevated Mr. Trump,” but “from Rusty Bowers in Arizona to Brad Raffensberger, the security of democracy has been a challenge.” And Republicans who stood up for security have also supported it,” Melhoun said. in georgia. ”
But Trump’s lawyers dismiss Hoffman as Trump’s “voice critic,” citing the fact that he said he would “spend as much as possible.” [he] Perhaps the White House can’t keep the former president out of a second term.
in the meantime, new york times reports that Trump used $10 million from PAC to pay legal fees in 2022. Hubba is representing Trump in Carroll’s lawsuit.
Kaplan was quick to respond Thursday to a request to delay the trial, saying Carol had nothing to do with her company securing funding from the nonprofit, and the money came nearly a year after she filed the lawsuit. It was used to help Carol.
She said Carol has a performance-based contract with her company. That means that if they win the lawsuit, the company gets a percentage of the recovery.
The Trump team’s recent delay is part of an ongoing strategy to postpone the trial, she claimed.
Advice columnist E. Gene Carroll was photographed in New York in 2020.
Seth Wenig/AP
On Tuesday, Trump’s lawyer asked a judge for a one-month stay to quell the “media frenzy” surrounding his arrest.
“With less than two weeks left before the trial, Trump has twice requested a one-month trial postponement in the past three days. Some efforts should be rejected,” Kaplan said.
Judge Kaplan has also complained about his repeated attempts to delay the case in the past.
Carroll did not immediately respond to an insider’s request for comment.
When asked for comment by an insider on Thursday, Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina said, “The letter speaks for itself. This is a very serious matter.”
The lawsuit in question is the second lawsuit Carroll has filed against Trump. When Carroll loudly denied her allegations that he raped her in the Bergdorf Goodman locker room in the mid-1990s, she sued Trump for defamation in 2019.
But the case is up in limbo as an appeals court considers whether Trump can be sued in that case. has campaigned to keep Trump out of the first lawsuit, citing federal laws that protect public officials like Trump, who was the incumbent president in the United States.
The second lawsuit was filed last year after New York State passed a law temporarily allowing new sexual assault lawsuits when the statute of limitations expires. and defamation of comments Trump made about Carroll after he left the White House.