NEW YORK — In the next ten days, former President Donald Trump must tell a judge whether he plans to attend his upcoming New York City trial in Manhattan federal court, where writer E. Jean Carroll is suing him for sexual battery and defamation, a judge ruled Monday.
The former president and Carroll must inform Judge Lewis Kaplan by Apr. 20 whether they plan to attend the trial in the Southern District of New York, which is expected to last about a week.
Kaplan’s order noted neither party is legally obliged to attend. And the judge said it did not attempt to suggest “legal consequences that might or might not flow from any decision not to be present throughout.”
