Has U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan left a tripwire for Donald Trump? The Manhattan judge issued a curious ruling last week in the case of writer E. Jean Carroll, who is suing Trump for defamation over an alleged rape in the mid-1990s. Kaplan has decreed that the jury must be kept anonymous. It’s a seemingly minor ruling that could have major consequences when the case goes to trial on April 25.

Interestingly, neither Trump nor Carroll’s lawyers objected when Kaplan first notified them, a couple weeks ago, that he was considering an anonymous jury. The Daily News and Associated Press argued against it, of course, but on Thursday Kaplan issued his opinion (read here) that highlighted his fear that Carroll jurors could be harassed, or worse. “This is a unique case,” he wrote, enumerating various instances of Trump’s public misbehavior, like inciting his supporters during the Jan. 6 riot and, last week, when he claimed he was about to be arrested in the Stormy Daniels case. Kaplan added: “Mr Trump’s quite recent reaction to what he perceived as an imminent threat of indictment by a grand jury sitting virtually next door to this Court was to encourage ‘protest’ and to urge people to ‘take our country back.’”