Donald Trump argues with the judge and creates a stir in the New York court that is trying him for defamation

The judge who instructs the defamation trial against former President Donald Trump threatened this Wednesday to prevent him from accessing the room where the journalist and plaintiff E. Jean Carroll, who last May had already won another lawsuit against him for sexual assault and defamation, testified on Wednesday.

The warning came several times after the former head of the White House ignored the order to remain silent while Carroll testified that Trump ruined his reputation after accusing him of sexual abuse.

“Mr. Trump has a right to be here,” said Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who is prosecuting the proceedings. But he warned him: “You may lose this right if you interrupt, as I was told, and if you ignore the court orders,” according to judicial press present at the trial.

After an initial warning, one of the columnist’s lawyers said the tycoon continued to make comments to his lawyers such as: “This is a witch hunt.” and “this is really a fraud.”

“Mr. Trump, I hope I don’t have to consider excluding you from the trial,” the judge said after the jury was allowed to leave for lunch, adding, “I understand that you probably want me to do that.”

“I would love to,” Trump blurted, shrugging as he sat between his lawyers Alina Habba and Michael Madaio at the defense table.

“I know you’d like it. Apparently you just can’t control yourself under these circumstances,” Kaplan responded.

“Neither do you,” Trump murmured.

In the midst of his campaign for the Republican Party primaries, the tycoon attended for the second day the defamation trial brought by the magazine’s former columnist elle That asks for 10 million dollars for damage to his reputation and career.

The accusation

At the height of the #Metoo movement, the journalist denounced in a book and an article that the then president had sexually assaulted her in 1996, to which Trump responded that the story of the attack “was totally false” and that Carroll “was He’s not his type.”

“I’m here because Donald Trump attacked me and when I wrote it he lied and tarnished my reputation,” the 80-year-old writer and former journalist told the jury, according to CBS television.

“I want to recover my reputation,” he added before the gaze of the former president, 77 years old, flanked by his lawyers, who on Monday swept the first appointment of the Republican Party primaries in the state of Iowa in his bid to return. to the White House in the November elections.

Campaign in the courts

This trial is the second in eight months in which Carroll faces Trump. Last May a jury agreed with the columnist and sentenced the tycoon to pay her 5 million dollars in damages: two for sexual assault and three for defamation for other statements made in 2022. Trump has appealed the sentence.

Unlike then, Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that Carroll does not have to prove sexual assault again, given the jury’s decision in May.

“I’ve never seen that woman in my life. I have no idea who she is,” Trump repeated last week, He called her a “liar” and “stupid.”“.

Trump’s defense team, led by Alina Habba, assures that this is what the former magazine columnist was looking for elle It’s “fame and notoriety” to sell your book.

Although he is not obligated to attend this civil trial, Trump has decided to do so. On Tuesday evening, after attending an event in the state of New Hampshire, in the second round of the January 23 primary, and amid snow and freezing temperatures, the Republican mogul returned to New York to witness Carroll’s questioning. the second day of the trial.

On Tuesday, after his landslide victory in Iowa, the Republican also attended jury selection throughout the morning.

“I want to attend all my tests,” Trump said this last week, when he attended the conclusion of another tax embezzlement trial, again in a Manhattan court, in which two of his sons and the family business are also accused.

With several legal fronts open, Trump considers himself the victim of a “witch hunt” orchestrated by the White House to hinder his return to the presidency.

Source: AFP