U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan has denied a motion filed by Donald Trump’s lawyers on Monday requesting a mistrial in E. Jean Carroll’s civil case accusing the former president of rape and defamation. In a letter filed in Manhattan federal court, Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina claimed Kaplan was biased against Trump and had made comments “openly expressing favoritism.” Tacopina also alleged Kaplan’s rulings “manifests a deeper leaning towards one party over another” and said that if a mistrial isn’t granted, then Kaplan should “correct the record for each and every instance in which the Court has mischaracterized the facts of this case to the Jury” and allow Tacopina to have “greater latitude to cross-examine” Carroll and her witnesses. Carroll claims Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in the mid-’90s and damaged her reputation by publicly insisting she was lying about the accusation.
