Marco Bello/Reuters
Donald Trump has asked a United States District Court judge to delay his upcoming rape trial in New York by a month, with lawyers asking for a “cooling off” period after the negative mass media coverage surrounding his indictment and arrest in the Stormy Daniels hush money case.
The civil trial, currently scheduled for April 25, comes after former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll accused the former president of raping her in the mid-1990s and sued him for defamation after he denied the allegation.
In a letter to U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan released Tuesday night, Trump attorneys Joseph Tacopina and Alina Habba request a four-week adjournment in the trial, saying Trump’s right to a fair trial hinges on the “cooling off” period after “the recent deluge of prejudicial media coverage concerning his unprecedented criminal indictment and arraignment in Manhattan.”