Former President Donald Trump has asked a Manhattan judge to excuse him from attending his upcoming civil rape trial, saying it will cause a logistical nightmare for New York City — but his accuser E. Jean Carroll counters he has no trouble attending UFC championships and campaign rallies.
Trump had until Thursday to state whether he would attend the case going on trial in Manhattan Federal Court next week. In a Wednesday letter to the court, his lawyer Joe Tacopina said Trump’s “unique status” as the former president should excuse his presence.
“Defendant Trump wishes to appear at trial,” Tacopina wrote. But doing so “would result in similar logistical and financial burdens upon New York City, its residents, and the Court itself” as seen during his recent criminal case down the street, Tacopina wrote.
“His movement would need to be coordinated [preliminary] by a Secret Service advance team hours beforehand each day that he is present, so that a tactical plan may be developed,” Tacopina wrote. “Courthouse floors would need to be locked down, elevators shut down, courthouse personnel confined to their offices, and members of the public restricted from the area.”
Trump is not legally required to attend but Tacopina wants the judge to excuse his absence to the jury with a special instruction outlining that “by design, [it] avoids the logistical burdens that his presence, as the former president, would cause the courthouse and New York City.”
A lawyer for Carroll, who has accused Trump of raping her inside Bergdorf Goodman on Fifth Ave in the mid-1990s, said Trump shouldn’t get a pass when he has no problem attending other events across the country. Trump is running for the White House for the third time.
Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan noted the courts “are fully equipped” to handle the circus that may ensue in the trial, expected to last a week.
“Mr. Trump’s position is especially difficult to credit in light of his own recent activity. Over the past few weeks, Mr. Trump attended the Ultimate Fighting Championship 287 event, spoke at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting, and appeared for a deposition in the New York Attorney General’s civil case against Mr. Trump, his adult children, and the Trump Organization,” Kaplan wrote.
“If Mr. Trump can find a way to attend wrestling championships, political conventions, civil depositions, and campaign functions, then surely he could surmount the logistics of attending his own federal trial.”
Judge Lewis Kaplan will rule on Tacopina’s request.