Former President Donald Trump’s second trial in a lawsuit filed by writer E. Jean Carroll will stand in recess on Tuesday, as New Hampshire voters head to the polls for the Republican primary.
The postponement will allow Trump to take the witness stand on Wednesday.
Earlier on Monday, Trump briefly appeared in court before a federal judge precipitously adjourned proceedings. Trump’s lead attorney Alina Habba said that she was exposed to COVID-19 through her parents, and a juror also fell ill, reporting feeling feverish and nauseous. That juror was ordered to go home and get tested.
Over the objections of Carroll’s attorney, senior U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan granted Trump’s request to end the trial for the day. Habba requested an additional delay to allow Trump to head to The Granite State for the primary — and return to New York to take the witness stand on Wednesday.
Habba initially requested a single-day pause to allow the sick juror to recover, leaving the nine-member panel intact.
“I don't see the problem with a short delay for a day,” Habba said in court on Monday. “I don't think it will prejudice anyone. At least we can get the juror's Covid test as well, just so everybody is focused. I think it will be better. We have nine jurors. I would like to have the full panel, please.”
After whispering with her client, Habba later asked the judge for an additional day to accommodate the former president's campaign schedule.
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“So tomorrow is the New Hampshire primary, and he needs to be in New Hampshire,” Habba said. “He was planning to testify. Clearly, he flew in last night to be here. I would just need his testimony to be Wednesday in light of the news about the juror today.”
Carroll's legal team opposed the delay, but Judge Kaplan initially left the matter unresolved.
“Circumstances may result in your getting what you ask for — and maybe not,” Kaplan said at the time.
It is unclear what circumstances the judge was referring to, and the court did not provide any updates as to the health of the jurors and the lawyers. Habba, her co-counsel Michael Madaio, and her client all sat in the court unmasked, and Habba informed the court that, while she had a fever over the weekend, she had tested negative.
Seated in the gallery, reporters spotted two of Trump's attorneys in his criminal cases: Susan Necheles and Todd Blanche, who represent the former president in the New York case accusing him of falsifying business records related to hush-money payments to pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels. Blanche also represents Trump in a criminal case in Florida over his allegedly illegal possession of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
In the ongoing civil trial, Trump is trying to limit how much he will have to pay Carroll, who previously won a $5 million judgment against him nearly a year ago.
In that trial, a separate jury found that Trump sexually abused Carroll in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman in the mid-1990s — and then defamed her by falsely denying her allegations. The judge ruled that the prior verdict resolved any factual controversy, and the jury now presiding over the case must only determine how much more he may owe in damages.