Former President Trump may wait a week to testify in a defamation trial in New York, where he faces millions of dollars in damages after a jury concluded he sexually assaulted a columnist in the 1990s, a federal judge said Sunday.

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan issued a one-page order saying Trump could testify on Jan. 22 even if the trial that begins Tuesday is over Thursday, with the exception of the testimony of the Republican front-runner in this year’s presidential race.

He said he had previously rejected Trump’s request to delay the start of the trial by a week so Trump could attend Thursday’s funeral of his mother-in-law because it would jeopardize potential jurors, lawyers, court staff and security were brought, would disrupt and hinder. of the trial date seven months ago.

The judge also noted that he has learned that Trump, even as he tried to delay the trial, had an evening campaign appearance scheduled for Wednesday in Portsmouth, NH. He said Trump’s lawyers informed the judge on Friday that Trump planned to attend the trial.

A jury selected Tuesday ahead of opening statements will hear evidence related to $10 million in compensatory damages and millions more in additional damages sought by lawyers for columnist E. Jean Carroll.

Carroll, 80, won a $5 million sexual abuse and defamation verdict in May from a civil jury that heard her testify that Trump sexually assaulted her in the dressing room of a downtown luxury department store in the spring of 1996 of Manhattan, after they had a chance encounter. that was lighthearted before it turned violent.

Trump did not attend that trial and has repeatedly said he never knew Carroll and accused her of fabricating her claims to promote a 2019 memoir in which she made them public for the first time and causing him political damage.

The jury rejected Carroll’s claim that Trump raped her, based on the definition of rape under New York state law, but agreed that he sexually assaulted her at the department store and defamed her with statements he made had done in October 2022.

This month’s trial, long delayed by appeals, stems from defamatory comments Trump made about Carroll in 2019, according to the judge.

Kaplan ruled last year that the trial starting Tuesday will only concern damages, because the previous jury’s findings on sexual abuse and defamation can be accepted for purposes of the new trial.

Earlier on Sunday, Trump attorney Alina Habba objected to the restrictions on Trump’s testimony requested by a lawyer for Carroll, saying that despite instructions already given by the judge, Trump could still provide significant testimony in defense of his defense.

She noted that someone seeking punitive damages in a New York State defamation case must prove that defamatory statements were made out of hatred, ill will or spite, and said Trump should be allowed to provide evidence and testimony on whether hatred or malice will was behind his actions. comments to reporters.

Habba said Trump could also testify about the circumstances of his comments and how they compare to comments in Carroll’s “constant parade of interviews and publicity.”

Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, asked the judge in a letter Friday to impose restrictions on Trump testifying so he doesn’t sow chaos or poison these proceedings.

Kaplan, who is not related to the judge, said she feared Trump would try to ignore the judge’s instructions that Trump not allege in his testimony, as he has often done with public statements on the campaign trail, that Carroll is pushing back her claims had made up against him.

In a written ruling late Sunday, the judge did not directly address Kaplan’s suggestions, other than to say: “The Court will take such measures as it deems appropriate to prevent circumvention of its rulings and of the law.”

In a ruling earlier this month, the judge alluded to the fact that what the jury concluded Trump did to Carroll constitutes rape in some states, writing that the fact that Mr. Trump did in fact sexually assault and rape Ms. Carroll has been established beyond a reasonable doubt and is binding in this case.