It would be two months before the defamation trial was heard in court, and the election was to be held in ten days" time.

But until the defamation trial began nearly eight months ago, he had virtually vanished from the public stage.

Joseph Mahoney, a spokesman for the Attorney General, said the information was irrelevant to the defamation trial.

A defamation trial against his father forced Kraus to interrupt his studies for one year and to move back to Buchen.

Yet his defense at the defamation trial in 1997 and 1998 seemed troublingly familiar.

He said he was eager to testify and eager to give his opening statements at the defamation trial in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., today.

She is not expected to testify at the defamation trial.

The defamation trial was scheduled to commence on March 4, 1985.

"You people are going to print that," he said bitterly, suggesting that the presence of news media was helping turn the defamation trial into a carnival.

Five months after it started, Mr. Sharpton's defamation trial in Poughkeepsie still drags on.