On Wednesday a federal judge said that former President Trump’s “quid pro quo” offer to provide a DNA sample in the case against author E. Jean Carroll was just a delay tactic.
Trump had previously repelled Carroll’s efforts to gain access to DNA samples that would be tested against the samples that Carroll wrote when the alleged rape took place in the mid-1990s. Trump has repeatedly denied that he assaulted Carroll.
Last week, Joseph Tacopina, Trump’s attorney, offered to willingly provide a DNA sample from his clients if Carroll agreed to include the missing appendix from the dress’s DNA report. However, Carroll’s attorneys refused this request.
Judge Lewis Kaplan also determined that there was no justified reason for this deal to take place as neither Carroll nor Trump is obliged to provide the appendix and DNA sample respectively. He added that “neither is a quid pro quo for the other.”
Kaplan added that Trump is “not entitled to the undisclosed appendix” and he had never previously requested access to it. Trump’s team however has now argued that the appendix is necessary for the due process so that they can prepare for the upcoming trial.
Kaplan, who was nominated by former President Clinton to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, criticized Trump stating that this request was only meant to delay the trial which is currently set for April. The judge added that Trump had attempted to delay the case before and that he knew the appendix had been missing for months so it was unreasonable for it to be requested now that the discovery was closed.
