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Former US President Donald Trump leaves Trump Tower for Manhattan federal court for the second defamation trial against him, in New York City on January 22, 2024.
Charly Triballeau | AFP | Getty Images
The sex assault defamation trial of former President Donald Trump was postponed Monday when a juror called in feeling ill, and when Trump’s attorney reported she also did not feel well, after a parent of hers tested positive for COVID-19.
The session was called off after Trump and the plaintiff in the civil case, E. Jean Carroll, had both arrived at U.S. District Court in Manhattan, but before the jury was brought into the courtroom for the day.
Trump and Carroll were in the courtroom when Judge Lewis Kaplan said the trial would be postponed until Tuesday at the earliest. The judge then brought in the remaining jurors to explain the delay.
Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba, who had at least one parent who tested positive for Covid, said she was feeling feverish, but she tested negative for the virus at court Monday morning. Her co-counsel in the case, Michael Madaio, also tested negative.
The trial, which began last week, is being held to determine how much Trump must pay Carroll for defaming her in denying her accusation that he raped her in a New York department store in the mid-1990s.
Trump, 77, was president at the time he first defamed the now-80-year-old Carroll in 2019.
Another jury in the same court last year found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in the attack, and for defaming her in late 2022 when he reiterated his denial of her allegations. That jury ordered him to pay $5 million to her.
Trump is appealing that verdict.
E. Jean Carroll (C) arrives for her civil defamation trial against former US President Donald Trump at Manhattan Federal Court in New York City on January 22, 2024.
Angela Weiss | Afp | Getty Images
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