Numerous cases against former President Donald Trump continue to pour in on the heels of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who opened the flood gates in recent weeks. It seems as though everyone wants to claim a piece of the preverbial by to claim the honor of being a part of the coordinated effort to take Trump own of the race and American politics for good — or at least to thoroughly drag his name through the mud, ensuring he leaves a public legacy of dishonor, regardless of the validity of their claims against him.
According to news reports on Monday, a federal judge in New York rejected former President Donald Trump’s request for a postponement of the trial in the case filed by former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll accusing Trump of battery and defaming defamation.
After being indicted in Manhattan last month, Trump requested that the trial be postponed because of intense media coverage and a need for a “cooling off” period. Unfortunately, the judge presiding over that case disagreed with him and insisted on moving forward despite his valid concern.
After all, media coverage is part of the prize in this case intended to propel Trump and any other political adversaries of the establishment into infamy.
US District Judge Lewis Kaplan, a senior judge in the Southern District of New York, who was appointed to the bench by Bill Clinton in 1994, denied Trump’s request to delay the trial set for early next week, on Tuesday, April 25.
In denying his motion to delay, Kaplan stated, “There is no justification for an adjournment. This case is entirely unrelated to the state prosecution.”
“Developments in at least one of these matters, as well as actions and statements by Mr. Trump in relation to any, may well give rise to intense publicity that, in some respects, Mr. Trump might claim to be prejudicial in this case,” Kaplan noted. “Mr. Trump’s suggestion that a one-month trial postponement, in this case, would ensure the absence of any such developments in the period immediately preceding jury selection is not realistic.”
According to recent revelations, Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn and a major Democratic donor, was secretly funding Carroll’s lawsuit against Trump, court records filed on Thursday showed.
In a heated exchange between Carroll through her representation and Trump’s, who were arguing about postponing the trial, the latest revelations on Carroll’s alleged key funding for the case were revealed.
It has yet to be determined if Hoffman’s financial support has a significant impact on the case’s outcome, if any, but Trump’s continuing claims that wealthy Democrats are conspiring to undermine him will likely be strengthened by the disclosure of the previously undisclosed funding, the outlet noted.
Founder of LinkedIn, the professional social network, Hoffman is one of the most prominent Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Additionally, he is one of the most significant Democratic donors who is presumed to be determined to weaken Trump’s hold over the Republican Party. Vox reported that Hoffman’s opposition to Trump’s policies has affected his friendship with PayPal founder Peter Thiel, who has taken on the role of funding conservative causes and candidates.
Carroll accuses Trump of raping her in the dressing room of a high-end Manhattan department store in the 1990s. According to The Daily Beast, Trump called her a liar from the White House after she wrote a tell-all memoir chronicling her experience. For nearly four years, Carroll has been stuck in legal limbo over her defamation lawsuit against the former president.
Carroll filed a new lawsuit seeking a trial after the New York Legislature passed a new rape survivor law, which extended the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits. It could result in monetary compensation for Carroll, but more importantly, it could label the powerful real estate magnate seeking a second presidential term as a rapist.
“Trump lawyers Alina Habba and Joe Tacopina—who have already tried to delay the trial—are seizing on the strange nature of this 11th-hour revelation to ask a federal judge to push back the trial or even open up another round of investigation before it starts,” the outlet reported.
Carroll told Trump’s legal team during her deposition on October 14 that she had no financial support from anyone, only to have her lawyers inform them on Monday that she had a mystery backer.
According to Trump’s lawyers, Carroll’s team was reluctant to reveal the donor’s identity until several phone calls later in the week, when they revealed Hoffman and the American Future Republic as the donors.
