What you should know
- Former President Donald Trump could return to a New York court Thursday to defend himself against a lawsuit seeking more than $10 million for things he said about columnist E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of sexual assault.
- Trump’s first visit to the court this week, on Monday, ended abruptly because a juror was sick. The trial has since been suspended.
- Carroll’s attorneys are expected to finish presenting their case Thursday morning. If all goes as planned, Trump could be on the witness stand before the lunch break. Trump just scored big wins in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday and in the Iowa caucuses last week.
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump could return to a New York court Thursday to defend himself against a lawsuit seeking more than $10 million for things he said about columnist E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of sexual assault.
Trump’s first visit to the court this week, on Monday, ended abruptly because a juror was sick. The trial has since been suspended.
Carroll’s attorneys are expected to finish presenting their case Thursday morning. If all goes as planned, Trump could be on the witness stand before the lunch break. Trump just scored big wins in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday and in the Iowa caucuses last week.
Carroll, 80, testified at a trial last year in the same courtroom that she was attacked by Trump in the locker room of an upscale downtown department store in the spring of 1996. Last year, a jury was agreed that that happened and awarded Carroll $5 million in damages for Sexual Abuse and Defamation.
Trump denies ever meeting Carroll and says she made up her claims to sell a memoir. He did not testify or attend last year’s trial, a decision he now says he regrets.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ruled that the jury’s findings last year meant that a new jury chosen last week need only decide how much more money, if any, Trump owes Carroll for disparaging her and calling her a liar in 2019 while he was president.
Therefore, Kaplan has ruled, Trump will be prohibited from testifying on issues that would conflict with last year’s verdict. For example, she will not be allowed to say that she made up her sexual assault allegations or that she was motivated by her book deal or political reasons.
Trump, 77, attended the trial two of three days last week and let the jury know (through mumbled comments and gestures such as shaking his head) that he was displeased with the case against him.
Trump has already tested the judge’s patience. After he complained to his attorneys about a “witch hunt” and “scam” involving the jury, Kaplan threatened to throw him out of the courtroom if it happened again. “I would love to,” Trump said. Later that day, Trump said at a news conference that Kaplan was a “nasty judge” and that Carroll’s allegation was “a made-up story.”
When he is not in court, he has repeatedly made statements on his social network similar to the statements at stake in the trial. Carroll’s lawyers have presented some of those statements to the jury, arguing that the only way to stop Trump from defaming Carroll is to hit him hard financially.
Trump’s lawyers have tried to show jurors, through cross-examination of witnesses, that Carroll has gained some fame and financial rewards from standing up to Trump that outweigh the death threats and other venom hurled at her on social media. .
One of Trump’s lawyers, Alina Habba, told the judge that she could testify because, even with the judge’s restrictions, “she can still offer considerable testimony in her defense.”
Among other things, he can testify about his mental state when he made the statements that sued him and how his comments came about while Carroll was doing media interviews and reporters were asking him about her, Habba wrote.
She also suggested that he could “show his lack of ill will or resentment” by talking about how he “corrected” his initial denial of having met Carroll.
Before testifying, Carroll’s lawyers are expected to rest their case after calling a final witness whose testimony will likely last less than an hour and show fragments of a deposition Trump underwent in October 2022.
The current trial adds to four criminal cases Trump faces as the presidential primary season heats up. He has been juggling court appearances and on the campaign trail, using both to argue that he is being persecuted by Democrats terrified of his possible election.
2024-01-25 15:19:33
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