Judge again blocks Trump's damages expert from testifying in E. Jean Carroll trial

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan blocked Donald Trump's damages expert from testifying for the second time in the new civil trial brought by writer E. Jean Carroll, reported MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin.

Kaplan had already granted summary judgment in this case in favor of Carroll's defamation claim, making the trial only a matter of how much the damages should be.

In the order issued on Thursday, Kaplan said that Trump's proposed witness of Robert J. Fisher, an expert in defamation, is denied, in large part because Fisher's reports contain a criticism of evidence and other information that is not germane to the issue of discussing the damages to be assessed.

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Carroll has alleged that the former president raped her in a department store dressing room in the late 1990s. Trump has denied doing this and accused her of fabricating the story to advance her career. Carroll sued for defamation, and won, with a jury finding Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation earlier this year.

But even after this, Trump continued to make the same claims the jury had found were false, even leading a Republican audience in laughter over it during a CNN town hall.

Carroll subsequently sued again, seeking another round of damages for continuing to perpetuate the false claims.