The former president, Donald Trump, is expected back in New York for an important trial. The trial is centered on E. Jean Carroll’s defamation action against him, and Trump could testify in this regard.
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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On Sunday, President Trump declared his intention to attend the trial in New York City. It’s unclear, though, if he will testify.
“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.
She held Trump responsible for alleged sexual assault and slander pertaining to her accusations and the former president’s remarks from 2022 in a prior legal proceeding, and she was granted $5 million in compensation.
The liability decision from the first trial will carry over to the second trial, the court has determined. The jury’s only task will be to decide how much Trump has to pay.
Under certain guidelines, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan will limit the testimony that Trump may provide. With these limitations, Trump will be unable to refute accusations of sexual assault against Carroll or to retract remarks he made about her in the past in 2019.
Trump and Kaplan got into a verbal altercation at a previous court appearance, which led to the judge threatening to exclude Kaplan from the chamber.
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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.
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 addressed the media outside the courthouse following the hearing.
Carroll’s lawyer, Shawn Crowley, said in court that she overheard President Trump criticizing Carroll.
“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.
Despite the warning, Trump persisted in criticizing Carroll throughout the testimony. Crowley was compelled by this to inform Kaplan, before to lunch, that she may continue to hear Trump disparaging Carroll.
“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.
