Judge Denies Trump's Excuse for Skipping Civil Rape Trial.

A judge in New York has dismissed suggestions from Donald Trump and his lawyers that the former president's potential absence at his upcoming defamation trial will be to prevent "logistical and financial burdens." Trump is being sued by former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll over allegations the former president defamed her character while denying accusations he raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in New York in the mid-1990s. The civil trial in the case is set to start in New York on April 25, with federal judge Lewis A. Kaplan asking both parties to confirm whether they would attend the hearing by Thursday, April 20.