NEW YORK (AP) – The names of jurors will be kept confidential in an upcoming civil trial in an author’s rape lawsuit against former President Donald Trump, a judge ruled Thursday, citing a “very strong risk” that she would face harassment and other charges.
Anonymous jurors are unusual, especially outside of criminal cases. The Associated Press and the Daily News of New York objected to plans to withhold the identity of jurors in the trial of columnist E. Jean Carroll’s claim – denied by Trump – that the Republican raped her in the 1990s.
But U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said he was worried the jurors would get unwanted attention from the media and “harassment or worse” from supporters of the president who have crushed the trial, or from people unhappy with any verdict. can happen.
“On the basis of the unprecedented circumstances in which this trial will take place, including extensive pretrial publicity and a very strong risk that the jury will fear harassment, unwanted invasion of privacy and retaliation,” he wrote, “there is a strong reason to believe that the jury needs protection. “
Carroll’s attorney declined to comment. Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba said she did not want jurors to “feel outside pressure or influence” in the trial, which is set to begin late next month.
“Anonymity will help ensure that his decisions are based only on the facts presented to him,” Habba said, stressing that the facts would be “indisputable” to Trump.
Unless their names are kept confidential, jurors will be transported to and from court and sequestered from the public during breaks there.
There is a history of federal courts that have found that juror names are public record, and reasoned that their disclosure could eliminate public suspicion of the election process. But courts have also allowed exceptions to protect jurors, sometimes in cases involving allegations of terrorism, organized crime or prior jury tampering.
This winter, for example, an anonymous jury was used in the Brooklyn federal criminal trial of a New Yorker convicted of fighting for the Islamic State extremist group in Syria, and a former cabinet-level Mexican official convicted of protecting a violent drug cartel from the police. in exchange for a huge bribe.
Carroll’s case was not criminal, despite the rape allegations. The former advice columnist for Elle magazine said Trump forced her into a dressing room at a luxury store after a chance meeting and joked about trying on lingerie.
Trump denied sexually assaulting her or even knowing her, while repeatedly adding that she was “not my type.”
He was photographed with his wife at a social event in 1987, a picture that Trump has dismissed as a brief encounter he doesn’t remember. He mistakenly identified Carroll as one of his ex-wives when shown the picture last year when questioned under oath in the lawsuit.
The Associated Press generally does not identify people who claim they have been sexually assaulted, unless they come forward publicly, as Carroll did.