The derailment of Donald Trump’s testimony in the E. Jean Carroll case due to a COVID-19 scare may have ruined the former president’s chances to win the trial and hurt his 2024 campaign, according to former federal and state prosecutor Elie Honig.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who’s overseeing the trial, told attorneys that one of the nine jurors had fallen ill with COVID-19 symptoms and would undergo testing. Trump’s lead attorney, Alina Habba, asked Kaplan for a one-day adjournment saying she wasn’t feeling well after meeting her parents several days before, with one or both of them having been exposed to the virus.
While Habba’s parents both tested negative, the attorney asked for the trial to be paused until the entire panel of jurors can be present. Kaplan initially put off proceedings until 9:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday—the same day of the New Hampshire Republican primary—only to later agree to Habba’s request to postpone it to Wednesday morning.
Newsweek contacted Habba’s office for comment by email on Tuesday.
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The postponement of the case has deprived Trump of a chance of making a political stump speech before the primary race in the state, Honig, who now works as a CNN senior legal analyst, told the network on Monday.
“Any effort by Donald Trump to testify in this case is largely maybe entirely driven by politics,” he told CNN anchor John Berman.
“I mean, legally speaking, there’s no reason for Donald Trump to take the stand. All he’s allowed to testify about here is E. Jean Carroll’s damages. What would Donald Trump know about what happened to E. Jean Carroll’s reputation or career?”
Carroll’s civil trial against Trump ended in May 2023 and found that the former president was liable for sexually abusing and defaming her. She was awarded $5 million. In her defamation lawsuit against Trump for denying he sexually assaulted her at a Bergdorf Goodman department store in the 1990s in New York City, Carroll is seeking $10 million in damages.
In another interview on the network on the same day, Honig told CNN anchor Sara Sidner that the former president’s testimony would be likely short now, if it happens.
“If Donald Trump testifies, and I’m skeptical it will, if he does it would be very quick,” Honig said. “This is not about whether Donald Trump sexually assaulted E. Jean Carrol, that’s already been decided. This is not about whether Donald Trump defamed E. Jean Carrol, that’s already been decided. This is only about the question of damages.
“And the judge here has already correctly set strict parameters, said you can’t come in here and contest those things that are already settled, you can’t come in here and make a political speech.”
That’s why Honig said Trump’s testimony is going to be short and the former president is going to be kept “on a short leash” by Kaplan.
A second blow to Trump was delivered by the absence of one juror on Monday.
“There are nine jurors on this jury. You need a unanimous verdict against you. In order to proceed today, they would be proceeding with less than nine jurors, with eight jurors, seven jurors, whatever, however many are sick, you would take out,” Honig told Berman on Monday.
“You have to have at least six in a civil case. If I’m Donald Trump, I want as many jurors as possible because more jurors means more people who could come back in my favor,” he continued.
“If one person is in Trump’s favor, you’re not going to have a verdict, you’re going to have a hung jury. And so if I’m Trump’s lawyer, just doing the math, more jurors, more chances for me to get a hung jury. So I would say, your honor, let’s take the day off.”
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.