A New York judge on Monday put the second defamation damages trial of former President Donald Trump on pause after a juror and the parents of one of Trump’s lawyers fell sick.
One juror, on his way to court, started to feel “flu-like” symptoms and called the courthouse to report he wasn’t feeling well, Judge Lewis Kaplan said. Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, who was exposed to COVID-19 during a visit from her parents, tested negative for the virus but had some symptoms. Habba showed up to court without a mask, the New York Post reported.
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Out of an abundance of caution, Kaplan suspended the proceedings. The entire jury pool will be tested for COVID-19 and the trial, for now, is expected to resume Tuesday morning.
Trump’s attorneys have asked that he be able to testify Wednesday, one day after the crucial New Hampshire Republican primary, but Kaplan has not decided on the request.
Trump appeared to be preparing to take the stand as early as Monday afternoon in the civil suit brought against him by former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll.
Carroll, who sued the 2024 Republican front-runner for defaming her by calling her rape allegations a “hoax” and “pure fiction,” had been expected to wrap up her case by midday Monday.
Trump is listed as one of two witnesses for the defense.
On Monday morning, a small crowd of Carroll supporters showed up at the Manhattan federal courthouse. Carroll stopped and waved at them while Trump’s motorcade made its way to the back garage of the courthouse from Trump Tower.
The first case Carroll brought against Trump took place last year after she alleged he raped her in a dressing room of Bergdorf Goodman in the mid-1990s and then defamed her by calling her claims a “con job” after he left the White House. A jury found Trump liable for sexual assault and defamation and awarded her $5 million, though Trump is appealing the verdict.
Trump also said he would testify in that case but ended up sitting it out.
Kaplan has already found Trump liable for defaming Carroll.
The nine-person New York jury’s only decision will be to determine how much money Trump will be forced to pay Carroll for comments he made about her while he was in the White House and arguably had access to the world’s largest microphone. She is asking for more than $10 million.
Last week, Trump showed up to court and both he and his lawyer Habba butted heads with Kaplan after Carroll’s attorney, Shawn Crowley, complained to the judge that jurors could hear his running commentary on Carroll’s testimony, which included calling her claims a “witch hunt” and saying “It really is a con job.”
Trump’s team of attorneys asked Kaplan to recuse himself for the “general hostility” they alleged the judge held for Trump and his lawyers, but Kaplan denied the request.
On Thursday, Northwestern sociology professor Ashlee Humphreys took the stand and told jurors it would take between $7.2 million and $12.1 million to repair the reputational harm Trump caused Carroll.
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Humphreys was brought on by the defense to analyze the reach of Trump’s statements and assess the damage. She testified that the damage was “severe” and that 25 million people had either heard or read Trump’s comments about Carroll.
Humphreys also testified in Carroll’s first defamation case against Trump and served as an expert in former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s defamation case, in which a jury awarded two Georgia election workers who had been defamed by the former New York mayor $148 million in damages in December.