Trump rape case judge is losing patience with defense requests to delay: 'Things keep happening in this case involving your client'

• Trump's lawyers asked a judge to push his rape trial from mid-April to early June.
• Judge Lewis A. Kaplan didn't make a decision on the scheduling issue Tuesday.

US District Court Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who is overseeing the upcoming rape claim trial for former President Donald Trump, balked on Tuesday at the frequent holdups coming from the defense, as Trump's new lawyer sought a six-week delay to the April trial date.

While he didn't decide on the postponement request Tuesday, Kaplan expressed concern that Trump's legal team has already caused delays in the lawsuits brought against Trump by E. Jean Carroll, who alleges he raped her decades ago and then defamed her after she spoke out.

"Things keep happening in this case involving your client. I would be a fool not to take that into account," Kaplan said Tuesday.

In October, Kaplan denied Trump's request to delay sitting for a deposition in the first lawsuit. And when Trump tried to countersue Carroll last year — two years after Carroll first sued Trump — Kaplan denied the former president, saying the lawsuit seemed to be a "bad faith" effort to delay the trial.

Carroll first sued Trump for defamation in November 2019, when he called her a liar for alleging he raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s.

After New York passed a law late last year allowing a one-year window for new sexual-assault filings beyond the statute of limitations, Carroll sued Trump for battery over the alleged sexual assault and brought a second complaint of defamation.

Joe Tacopina was hired last month to represent Trump in the second trial, which is slated to start April 17. The first trial has an April 10 trial date but is in limbo due to a pending appeals court decision.

In court on Tuesday, Tacopina asked for a six-week delay in the rape lawsuit, saying a health issue with an expert witnesses had thrown the schedule off. He also said he had "a lot of work to do" to catch up on the case and wants to fly to London for the birth of his first grandchild, whose April due date is the same as the current trial date.

He'll be ready for trial by the first week of June, Tacopina said, "come hell or high water."

Roberta Kaplan, who is representing Carroll, argued against delaying the case.

Tacopina and Roberta Kaplan declined to comment outside of the courtroom Tuesday.

Tacopina attempted to reassure the judge that he was "not coming into this case to delay" and wants it to be tried "as quickly as possible."

"I'm not running away from that obligation," Tacopina said Tuesday. "I'll be ready whenever you want me to be ready."