Donald Trump requested the trial date for E. Jean Carroll‘s defamation trial be postponed.
He said he would be traveling on Wednesday to attend his mother-in-law’s funeral.
His campaign website shows he’ll be in New Hampshire at a campaign rally that evening.
Donald Trump asked a judge to postpone his trial to travel for his mother-in-law’s funeral but failed to mention that he was scheduled to attend a campaign rally, too.
According to court documents reviewed by Business Insider, lawyers for Trump requested Friday that Judge Lewis Kaplan postpone the trial date for E. Jean Carroll’s defamation suit because of the sudden death of Amalija Knavs, the mother of his wife Melania Trump, last week. The trial was set to begin this Wednesday.
According to his attorney, Alina Habba, Trump could not attend the trial in New York on Wednesday and Thursday because he would be traveling to Florida to attend the funeral. Per the letter, Trump’s team asked that the trial be postponed until the following week.
Kaplan denied the request later on Friday, saying that while the court “offers its condolences” to the Trump family, the trial would continue as scheduled. Trump is not required to be at the trial, as Kaplan pointed out, but the former President had expressed interest in attending.
“Mr. Trump is free to attend the trial, the funeral, or all parts or both, as he wishes,” Kaplan wrote.
However, a letter sent by lawyers for Carroll on Saturday pointed out that may not have been the whole story. While Trump told the judge he would be “traveling to be with his family,” Carroll’s lawyers pointed out that Trump had a campaign rally scheduled in New Hampshire the same day.
“There was no mention made of any scheduling conflict in connection with Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign,” lawyers for Carroll wrote.
Trump’s campaign website shows the Portsmouth, New Hampshire, event scheduled for Wednesday at 7 p.m. Eastern Time. It is unclear if he still plans to attend the event, but it is still possible for the public to register for tickets as of Saturday evening. The funeral is scheduled for Thursday, meaning it could be possible to attend all three events — on a tight schedule.
On Truth Social, Trump railed against the judge overseeing the defamation case for not postponing the trial, calling him a “bad person and an even worse Judge.”
“Crazed, Trump hating Judge, Lewis Kaplan … was asked if he could delay this Rigged Political Scam for one day so that I could attend the FUNERAL OF MY BELOVED MOTHER-IN-LAW WITH MY WIFE, THE FORMER (AND NEXT!) FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES — AND HE SAID NO,” Trump wrote on Saturday.
In the same Truth Social post, Trump also accused Kaplan of purposely scheduling the trial in the middle of the New Hampshire primary but did not address the Carroll letter.
A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Read the original article on Business Insider
