Trump’s legal team calls for mistrial in defamation case, citing Carroll’s deleted death threats as evidence mishandling.
Former President Donald Trump’s legal team asked for E. Jean Carroll’s ongoing defamation trial against him to be tossed, arguing that the former Elle columnist spoiled evidence by deleting emails she received that included death threats.
In a Friday letter to US District Judge Lewis Kaplan, Trump’s attorney Alina Habba asked for a mistrial because of what she described as Carroll’s failure to preserve evidence relevant to the case.
“Plaintiff admitted that she deleted multiple email messages pertaining to purported death threats made to her,” Habba wrote.
If Kaplan decided not to cancel the rest of the trial — which is expected to conclude by the middle of next week — he should at least tell the jury not to award her any damages related to the death threats or tell the jury that she did something wrong, Habba said.
“Despite being served with a subpoena in connection with this action, Plaintiff failed to take reasonable steps to preserve relevant evidence,” Habba wrote. “In fact, she did much worse — she actively deleted evidence which she now attempts to rely on in establishing her damages claim.”
While cross-examining Carroll in a downtown Manhattan federal courtroom Wednesday, Habba asked her about insulting and threatening messages she received from Trump supporters in 2019, after she went public with her accusations that Trump raped her in the 1990s.
