For a high-profile trial involving a defamation complaint filed by E. Jean Carroll, Donald Trump is coming back to New York. Will he make a statement?
According to The Washington Times, Trump, who might secure the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination if he prevails in Tuesday’s primary in New Hampshire, “has signaled he wants to address the jury in his battle with Ms. Carroll, a columnist who alleges the former president raped her in a department store in 1996 and defamed her when she came forward decades later.”
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Though it’s uncertain if he will testify, Trump intends to return to New York City for the trial. Come learn with us!
“I don’t have to be there, but I want to be there because otherwise, I can’t get a fair shake. I’m going to be in court,” During a Rochester campaign visit, Trump stated.
After Trump was found guilty of sexual assault and slander in connection with her accusations and the former president’s statements from 2022, she was awarded $5 million in damages in a previous trial.
The jury’s only job, according to the court, will be to decide how much Trump must pay; the culpability decision from the first trial will carry over to the second trial.
President Trump’s speech is restricted by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in the event that he decides to take a position. These limitations expressly forbid Trump from retracting his earlier remarks against Carroll and from disputing Carroll’s accusations of sexual assault.
Trump and Kaplan had a verbal altercation at a prior court appearance, during which the judge threatened to eject him.
Politico’s Erica Orden recounted an encounter between the former president and Judge Lewis Kaplan during which Trump apparently waved his fists in the air, knocked on a table, and made comments about Carroll while she was testifying.
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JUDGE: Mr. Trump has the right to be present here. That right can be forfeited. Mr. Trump, I hope I don’t have to consider excluding you from the trial.
TRUMP: I would love it!
JUDGE: I know you would. I know you would. You just can’t control yourself in this circumstance, apparently.
Earlier in the day, Kaplan had given Trump advice to “keep his voice down,” which he repeated during the proceedings.
Trump addresses the media following the court proceeding.
Carroll’s lawyer, Shawn Crowley, claims to have overheard Trump making disparaging remarks about Carroll during her courtroom testimony.
“Mr. Trump has been loudly saying things, including that the witness is lying and noting that she has suddenly got her memory back,” Following the jurors’ removal from the room, Crowley informed Kaplan. “It’s loud enough that some of us here are hearing it.”
“I’m going to ask Mr. Trump to take special care to keep his voice down in conferring with his attorneys,” Kaplan said.
During the testimony, Trump ignored the warning and persisted in criticizing Carroll. Because of this, Crowley told Kaplan that she could still hear Trump disparaging Carroll before lunch.
“As you know, the First Lady’s mother passed away,” he began.
“The funeral is tomorrow, and we would have assumed that for a trial like this — it’s not an emergency in terms of timing — the judge would’ve been very nice and let me go because I want to be at every trial day,” Trump continued. “Because I saw what happened with the first one — I was asked not to go by the lawyers. Very much, they said, it’s demeaning. There was no evidence. There was no anything. So, I didn’t go. And I understood exactly what he meant when he said it was demeaning. There was no reason to go. You shouldn’t go. And I decided on this one — same judge, same judge. He’s a radical Trump hater.
“And I said, I will go to all days. So, what happened very terribly is we asked to delay the trial just for one day so I could go to the funeral tomorrow, and we could start Friday or Monday or anytime they want. And he said, ‘Absolutely not, the trial will go on just as it is. You can go to the funeral or the trial. You can’t do both,’” he continued.
