E. Jean Carroll lawyers tried to exclude juror who listened to "notorious far-right Youtuber," documents show
Attorneys for the writer E. Jean Carroll tried during the trial of her civil lawsuit against former President Donald Trump to remove a juror, after learning that he listened to a "notorious far-right" podcaster, court documents show. The request was denied and the juror ultimately joined eight other jurors in delivering a unanimous verdict in favor of Carroll.
The federal trial in New York City stemmed from allegations that Trump raped Carroll in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s, and then defamed her publicly when she spoke out about it several years ago.
In one of numerous filings that were unsealed on Wednesday, Carroll's attorneys pushed for the dismissal of Juror No. 77, a 31-year-old man who said during jury selection that he lived in the Bronx all of his life. He said he has "no kids that I know of" and generally avoided the news but listened "every now and then" to podcasts, which he described as "mainly independent."
The original transcript taken during the juror's selection interview noted that he gave "Temple" as an example of the podcasts he had listened to, but in a formal motion to excuse him from the trial, Carroll's attorneys said they learned later that the transcript was incorrect, and Juror 77 had actually said "Tim Pool."
An online political commentator who first gained attention for live streaming the Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011, Pool became a prolific YouTuber and podcast host. His channels are known to espouse far-right ideas, conspiracy theories, misogyny and otherwise hateful content, lawyers said in a motion to dismiss the juror. Pool faced some criticism in 2020 for a tweet sympathizing with Kenosha protest shooter Kyle Rittenhouse, and again in 2022 for an interview with Kanye West, when the rapper made antisemitic statements.
Carroll's attorneys wrote in their motion that "the videos posted on Pool's YouTube channel maintain a clear, consistent refrain of ... misogynistic statements and attacks on women who reveal sexual misconduct ... support for claims that the 2020 election was stolen and that Trump is treated unfairly by the news media; and ... defenses of well-known, misogynistic, and Trump-supporting extremist groups."
The attorneys characterized Pool as "a notorious far-right Youtuber" who has sometimes billed himself as independent. They pointed out that his "role in promoting extremist personalities has been widely documented," citing guest appearances by extremist figures like Alex Jones and Steve Bannon on his show.
Episodes of his podcast, "Timcast IRL," include one titled: "Tucker Carlson ROASTS Ted Cruz For Calling Jan 6th Terror, Trump is RIGHT Not To Address Media Lies." Pool has also used terminology with recognized white supremacist ties while describing his mission as a content creator, according to the filing.
In a confidential interview with the court held specifically to question Juror 77 about his exposure to Pool's content, he described the podcast as "middle" and "balanced," at first saying Pool "gets different political figures from the right" before amending his statement to: "He gets different, like political figures or just celebrities like that, on the left, on the right, you know, balanced."
Carroll's attorneys asked the presiding Judge Lewis Kaplan "to assess potential bias" in their motion to dismiss the juror. Attorneys for Trump argued that the motion "unreasonably" attempted "to attribute all of Mr. Pool's stated views to Juror No. 77," adding that "Juror No. 77 is not Tim Pool." The juror had said under oath that he listened to Pool's podcast "three or four" times in the last six months, according to court records.
The judge denied the request to dismiss Juror 77 but did not provide a reason in the documents unsealed this week.
Juror 77 ultimately voted in kind with the rest of the jury which, delivering their unanimous verdict on Tuesday, found Trump liable for battery and defamation and awarded Carroll $5 million in damages. The jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse but not rape.
"We are grateful that all nine jurors, including Juror No. 77, were not only faithful to their oath as jurors, but deliberated to reach a fair, impartial and unanimous verdict," Roberta Kaplan, one of Carroll's attorneys, said on Wednesday in a statement to the Associated Press.
CBS News contacted Kaplan and Joseph Tacopina, one of Trump's attorneys, for comments but did not receive immediate replies. As the AP reported, Pool tweeted about the debate over whether to dismiss Juror 77, saying, "If you think the show is 'far right' youre in a cult."
Graham Kates contributed reporting.