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Trump Threatens 'Death & Destruction' As Court Orders Anonymous Jury In Carroll Defamation Suit.

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(Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Donald Trump’s lawyer Joseph Tacopina has earned a lot of side eye in this column. But to his credit, Tacopina did not oppose Judge Lewis Kaplan’s sua sponte proposal to impanel an anonymous jury for the upcoming trial in the defamation and battery case filed by advice columnist E. Jean Carroll against the former president.

The only public objection was filed by the Daily News and the Associated Press, who cited the public’s presumed right of access to civil proceedings, possibly extending so far as to the identity of jurors. But the court was not persuaded, noting that this case is “unique,” and not just because Trump is the former president.

“[I]t bears mention that Mr. Trump repeatedly has attacked courts, judges, various law enforcement officials and other public officials, and even individual jurors in other matters,” Judge Kaplan wrote, before launching into a highlight reel of all the times Trump used his giant megaphone to endanger critics.

There’s the time he attacked the special purpose grand jury foreperson in Fulton County, Georgia, for supposedly tainting the process by giving interviews about it. Or the time he accused the jury foreperson on the panel that convicted Roger Stone of defrauding the court. Or the time he falsely accused innocent election workers in Georgia of vote fraud, and unleashed a wave of harassment that forced them from their homes. Or the time when he responded to news of his imminent indictment by urging his supporters to “PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!” That was last Saturday and resulted in heightened security measures being taken to protect “a grand jury sitting virtually next door to this Court,” Judge Kaplan observed. The court also alluded to without enumerating “Mr. Trump’s many statements regarding individual judges, the judiciary in general, and other public officials,” including New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, Judge Gonzalo Curiel, and even Chief Justice John Roberts.

Plus there was that one time when he incited thousands of his supporters to descend on the Capitol and attempt a coup to thwart the results of a lawfully conducted election.

“If jurors’ identities were disclosed, there would be a strong likelihood of unwanted media attention to the jurors, influence attempts, and/or of harassment or worse of jurors by supporters of Mr. Trump,” the court wrote, concluding that there is no less restrictive means of protecting the panel than by taking the unusual step of anonymizing it.

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And like clockwork, the former president took to social media to remind the world exactly why Judge Kaplan needed to take this drastic step. Last night, Trump called Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg an “animal” in control of Jewish philanthropist George Soros. And this morning, he was back on social media calling the prosecutor a “degenerate psychopath who truely [sic] hates the USA,” while warning of “potential death & destruction” if he’s charged.

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That train is never late.

Carroll v. Trump I [Docket via Court Listener]
Carroll v. Trump II [Docket via Court Listener]

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Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics and appears on the Opening Arguments podcast.

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