The federal judge overseeing Donald Trump's rape trial in Manhattan warned that the former president's social media posts criticizing his accuser, E. Jean Carroll, may cross the line into tampering with the jury.
"Your client seems to be endeavoring to talk to the public, but also seems to be talking to the jury in this case," US District Judge Lewis Kaplan warned Trump's attorney Joe Tacopina in his courtroom Wednesday morning.
Minutes earlier, Trump had published a series of Truth Social posts calling Carroll's allegations — that Trump raped her in a dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman department store in the mid-1990s — a "made up SCAM" that was motivated by politics, and claiming that Carroll refused to produce a dress she said had DNA evidence proving Trump sexually assaulted her. Carroll's lawyer Roberta Kaplan (who is not related to the judge) raised it before calling the case's first witness on Wednesday morning.
Tacopina initially said that Trump's comments appeared consistent with his opening statements in the case made Tuesday, but the judge wasn't buying it. Judge Kaplan pointed out that Trump had, for years, dodged taking a DNA test that would help determine the merits of Carroll's allegations.
"It's as if you just told me yesterday was the Fourth of July," Judge Kaplan said.
Judge Kaplan called Trump's Truth Social posts "a public statement that seems entirely inappropriate" and warned it may cross the line into "tampering" with the case.
"We're getting into an area where your client may or may not be tampering with a potential source of liability," the judge said.
Tacopina told the judge he'd tell Trump — who wasn't present in court — to "refrain from making posts" about the case.
"I hope you're more successful," the judge said.
After the exchange over Trump's social media posts on Wednesday morning, Carroll's legal team called its first witness: The manager of the Bergdorf Goodman store at the time of the alleged rape.
Carroll first accused Trump of raping her in the mid-1990s in a 2019 essay for New York magazine. She said that while their encounter began playful, with Trump asking Carroll to help him pick out a gift for a female friend, things quickly turned aggressive. Carroll said Trump assaulted her in a dressing room after asking her to try on a lacy bodysuit in the lingerie section.
While Carroll didn't report the incident to the police, she says she confided the story to two friends after. Both are on a list of potential witnesses who may testify during the trial.
Trump has loudly and repeatedly denied her claim, saying Carroll wasn't his "type" and that she made up the accusation in order to sell more copies of her memoir. In an October 2022 post on Truth Social, Trump wrote: "This 'Ms. Bergdorf Goodman case' is a complete con job. It is a Hoax and a lie, just like all the other Hoaxes that have been played on me for the past seven years."
Carroll swiftly filed to sue Trump for defamation. The suit, along with Carroll's battery lawsuit, began trial in a Manhattan federal court on Tuesday.
