By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Donald Trump asked a U.S. judge to delay the scheduled April 25 trial over whether he defamed former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll by denying he raped her, citing the recent "deluge of prejudicial media coverage" of criminal charges against him.
In a Tuesday night letter to U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan, Trump's lawyers said a four-week "cooling off" period to at least May 23 was necessary to guarantee the former U.S. president's right to a fair trial in Carroll's case.
Absent a delay, "many, if not most, prospective jurors will have the criminal allegations top of mind when judging President Trump's defense against Ms. Carroll's allegations," Trump's lawyers Joe Tacopina and Alina Habba said in the letter.
Prospective jurors, they added, "will have the breathless coverage of President Trump's alleged extra-marital affair with Stormy Daniels still ringing in their ears if (the) trial goes forward as scheduled."
Trump pleaded not guilty on April 4 to 34 felony charges of falsifying business records, in a case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Those charges concerned Trump's alleged concealment of a $130,000 hush money payment to buy Daniels' silence before the 2016 election about the porn star's alleged affair with him, which he denies.
Trump is seeking another White House term, and leading the Republican field.
'EXCEPTIONALLY ILL-SUITED'
In a letter to the judge on Wednesday, Carroll's lawyer Roberta Kaplan opposed Trump's request.
She called it "just another delay tactic" to keep jurors from hearing her client's case, and said the Constitution does not excuse Trump from a sexual assault claim because national media are revisiting his alleged extra-marital affairs.
Citing several pending criminal and civil inquiries and lawsuits, Kaplan also said there was "substantial reason" to believe any adverse publicity would not abate, and blamed Trump's "incendiary statements" for fueling it.
"Trump is exceptionally ill-suited to complain about fairness when he has instigated (and sought to benefit from) so much of the very coverage about which he now complains," Kaplan wrote.
Kaplan and the judge are not related.
BATTERY CLAIM
Carroll, 79, is seeking damages over Trump's denial in an Oct. 2022 post on his Truth Social media platform that he raped her in late 1995 or early 1996 in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan.
She is also suing Trump for battery over the alleged encounter, which Trump has also said never happened.
In his post, Trump said he did not know Carroll, that she made up the rape claim to promote her memoir, and that the claim was a "hoax," "lie," "con job" and "complete scam."
Carroll also sued Trump for defamation in November 2019 over his similar denial of her rape claim five months earlier. That case is still pending.
Trump's lawyers said holding a trial, expected to last several days, between May 23 and an Aug. 8 deadline to file all motions in the criminal case would result in a jury "far more likely to be impartial."
The case is Carroll v Trump, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 22-10016.