Donald Trump threw his hands in the air and said he would “love it” if the judge at his defamation trial in New York threw him out of court for loudly ripping sex abuse accuser E. Jean Carroll as she testified Wednesday.
Lawyer advice columnist “Ask E. Jean” twice complained that the former president gave running commentary to his team in front of the jury — including calling Carroll’s testimony “false” and complaining that “he now seems to be finally getting his memory back.”
“Mr. Trump has a right to be here. That right can be taken away if he’s disruptive … and if he doesn’t obey a court order,” Manhattan federal Judge Lewis Kaplan warned after first warning Trump, 77, to “guard his voice” when talking to his lawyer.
“Mr. Trump, I hope I don’t have to consider recusing you from the trial. I understand you’re very impatient for me to do that,” Kaplan said.
“I would love it,” Trump quipped, cutting off the judge as he threw his hands in the air.
“I knew you would,” the judge replied. “It seems you can’t control yourself in this situation.”
“Nor can you,” Trump replied.
Carroll, who is seeking $10 million in damages from Trump, was the first witness to take the stand in her case against the real estate mogul – facing him for the first time while testifying in court.
Trump said he would like a judge to throw him out of a Manhattan courtroom because of harsh comments the former president made during his accuser’s testimony. AFP via Getty Images
The GOP presidential candidate returned to a Lower Manhattan courthouse Wednesday morning — fresh off a 2024 campaign event in New Hampshire — after attending jury selection and opening statements the previous day.
He was seen with odd red marks on his right hand as he waved as he left Trump Tower, but they had mysteriously disappeared by the time he reached the courtroom.
During an early break in testimony — when jurors left the room — Carroll’s attorney Shawn Crowley told Kaplan that Trump was “loudly saying things” that jurors might have heard.
“I would ask Mr. Trump to be careful to keep his voice down while consulting with the attorney so the jury doesn’t hear,” the judge said in response.
But Crowley brought up the issue again before the lunch break, claiming Trump ignored Kaplan’s instructions and still mumbled loudly during Carroll’s testimony.
Carroll testified with Trump present for their first meeting in court on Wednesday. AP
“He said, ‘It’s a witch hunt,’ ‘It’s really the work of a con man,'” Crowley claimed.
Trump later ripped into Kaplan in a rant on his Truth Social platform that spanned five posts, calling the judge “absolutely biased and [a] hostile people.”
Michael Madaio, one of Trump’s lawyers, made an oral motion after the lunch break for Kaplan to recuse himself over his alleged “hostility” toward Trump.
Kaplan refused the request and the hearing resumed, with Trump attorney Alina Habba grilling Carroll on cross-examination for about two hours. Habba asked a series of questions that seemed designed to portray the magazine writer as a publicity-seeker who always loved the spotlight – which only got brighter after she accused Trump of raping her.
Carroll in June 2019 revealed her allegations that Trump sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room in 1996.
She sued Trump for defamation after he denied ever knowing her and said he was not her “type” — in a statement to reporters from the White House.
In May, a jury in a separate case found Trump liable for sexual assault and defamation and ordered him to pay $5 million in damages.
Carroll said he has received death threats since Trump denied the allegations. Reuters
“I’m here because Donald Trump attacked me. And when I wrote about it, he said it never happened, he lied, and he ruined my reputation,” the 80-year-old writer said as he began his testimony in the current case on Wednesday.
Trump — wearing his usual navy suit, white shirt and red tie — glared at his accuser from just a few feet away as he continued, “I’m here to get my reputation back and stop him from lying about me.”
Carroll said Trump’s lies have destroyed his reputation as a trusted advice columnist and “ended the world” he lived in.
“Now I am known as a liar, a cheat and a boring job,” he said.
“To have the president of the United States, one of the most powerful men on Earth, call me a liar for three days and say I’m a liar 26 times — I counted them — it ends the world I live in,” Carroll said.
Carroll said he lost his journalistic reputation after Trump’s comments against him. Reuters
Before Trump’s comments, Carroll used to receive about 200 emails a month asking for relationship advice, and after his statement, that number dropped to just eight a month, she claimed.
Following the 45th president’s remarks, Carroll said he received horrific death threats and messages from online trolls.
He recalled being in a hotel room when he received the first death threat on June 21, 2019 — the same day Trump publicly denied the allegations.
“I thought I was going to get shot,” Carroll said, describing how he panicked as he struggled to close the curtains in his hotel room that day.
Jurors were shown about a dozen hateful messages the New York reporter had received, including one saying “I hope you die soon” and another saying he should die by “execution” or “firing squad.”
When Trump left Trump Tower for court on Wednesday, he was seen with a mysterious red mark on his hand. AFP via Getty Images
Carroll said she lives in fear and even looks over her shoulder when she pulls her car into the garage after buying groceries.
And to this day, he receives nasty messages – “hundreds a day.”
When Trump said he was “not my type,” Carroll said he really meant “I’m too ugly to attack” — a sentiment he says makes it hard to wake up in the morning.
“I know I’m old. I know I’m 80 years old,” Carroll said. “I know I’m not a pretty young lady, but it makes it hard to get on with the day.”
But near the end of her testimony Wednesday, a defiant Carroll said she went public because she “wants people to know that a woman can speak up and win.”
“I don’t want to be silent,” Carroll told jurors. “I’m 80. It’s not right to silence women. It has been going on for too long.”
Trump sank deeper into his seat as he heard Habba tell the court he still had about 30 minutes worth of questioning left for Carroll on Thursday morning.
He has said that he cannot be in court Thursday because he will attend the funeral of Amalijia Knavs, his mother-in-law and mother of his wife Melania Trump.
But in Trump’s Truth rant he said “I feel an obligation to be at every moment of this ridiculous trial.”
Additional reporting by Kyle Schnitzer
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
