Social media comments

Judge in E. Jean Carroll trial warns Trump about social media comments

By Lauren del Valle

The judge overseeing a civil battery and defamation trial for columnist E. Jean Carroll against Donald Trump warned the former president’s counsel on Wednesday about comments their client made on social media about the case.

Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, outside the presence of the jury, flagged to federal District Judge Lewis Kaplan a post Trump made on his social media site Truth Social earlier Wednesday about the lawsuit. The post called the suit a scam and mentioned DNA on Carroll’s dress that she alleges she was wearing at the time Trump allegedly forcibly raped and groped her in a Manhattan luxury department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. Trump has denied the allegations.

Judge Kaplan warned Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina that the statement and any further statements about the case could open Trump up to “a new source of potential liability.” Tacopina said he would ask his client to refrain from any further comments about the case.

The judge had previously asked the lawyers to tell clients and witnesses to refrain from making statements that are likely to incite violence or civil unrest, and to refrain from making comments that could have the potential to jeopardize the safety of individuals or the rule of law.

Carroll is suing Trump for battery and defamation, alleging that he raped her at Bergdorf Goodman in the spring of 1996 and then defamed her years later when she went public with the allegations.