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By Kate Plummer
Senior US News Reporter
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Former president Donald Trump has hit out at the judge overseeing his E. Jean Carroll case, Lewis Kaplan, for denying a request to delay the trial.
This month Trump is facing a damages trial after a New York City jury awarded Carroll, a journalist, $5 million in damages in May, ruling that Trump had sexually assaulted her and was civilly liable for defamation.
Carroll's lawyers are seeking another $10 million in compensatory damages and "substantially more" after the former president continued to deny the accusations that he assaulted her in a New York City department store changing room in the mid-1990s, claiming he has no idea who she is and that Carroll was not his "type." Trump also called Carroll's account "fake" and labeled her a "whack job" during a CNN town hall broadcast. In early September, Judge Kaplan ruled that Trump's comments against Carroll were defamatory.
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On Friday, lawyers for Trump requested that Kaplan postpone the trial to the following week because of the death of Trump's mother-in-law, Amalija Knavs, as the former president will be traveling on Wednesday to attend the funeral scheduled for Thursday.
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Although Trump is not required to be at the trial, the former president said he was interested in attending it. Kaplan denied the request, however, and said that while the court "offers its condolences" to the Trump family, the trial would continue as scheduled.
Speaking at a campaign event in Iowa on Sunday, ahead of the GOP caucuses in the state, the Republican said those involved in the decision were "animals" and "radical left lunatics."
He said: "My wife's mother who was an incredible woman, a great beauty inside and out, incredible woman, she just died and my wife is very devastated by that and I have a trial going on, a fake trial, totally fake trial, and we asked the judge if I could take a day off for the funeral of my mother-in-law who was very close to me also and he said 'no.'"
"These are animals," he continued. "These are bad people. These are radical left lunatics that want to hurt me because they think its going to hurt me at the polls so that Biden can win an election. I don't think the people are going to fall for it."
Trump also suggested he might not attend the trial to instead attend the funeral.
"I'll be there, one way or the other I'll be there," he said.
He also attacked Kaplan's decision in a post on Truth Social on Saturday, writing: "Lewis Kaplan, the terrible, biased, irrationally angry Clinton-appointed Judge in the Bergdorf's Hoax, refused to postpone the sham trial next week, even in light of the funeral of my beloved Mother-in-law."
However, a letter sent by lawyers for Carroll on Saturday said that Trump is holding a campaign event in New Hampshire on Wednesday, the same day the former president said he would be traveling to be with his family.
"There was no mention made of any scheduling conflict in connection with Mr. Trump's presidential campaign," lawyers for Carroll wrote.
Newsweek contacted a representative for Trump via email for comment.
Meanwhile, Trump's bid to delay the closing arguments in his civil fraud trial last week also failed, with Judge Arthur Engoron denying a request by the former president's lawyer, Chris Kise.
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