New York, United States, Jan 17 (EFE).- The judge presiding over the damages trial against former United States President Donald Trump (2017-2021) for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll threatened to have him removed for speaking loudly during her testimony on Wednesday.
Judge Lewis Kaplan warned the Republican that he could be kicked out of the courtroom if he continued to make disruptive comments to his attorney during Carroll’s testimony.
“Mr. Trump has the right to be present here. That right can be forfeited, and it can be forfeited if he is disruptive and if he disregards court orders,” Kaplan said, and added, speaking directly to the former president, “I hope I don’t have to consider excluding you from the trial. I understand you are very eager for me to do that.”
To which Trump replied, “I would love it. I would love it.”
During the lunch break, Trump posted a rant against the judge on his social media platform, Truth Social, saying, “The judge suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome as anyone can see from his last outburst against me in the court.”
Trump and Carroll, face to face
In 2019, Carroll published a magazine article alleging that Trump had raped her more than 20 years earlier.
Trump, who was president at the time, denied the allegations, saying she was not his “type” and that she had a political agenda against him and was trying to sell books.
In response, Carroll sued Trump for defamation in November 2019 and then again in 2022 when she added a claim of battery under the Adult Survivors Act, a New York law that allows victims of sexual assault to file civil lawsuits after the statute of limitations has expired.
The second suit was the first to go to trial, and in it, Trump was found liable for sexually assaulting and defaming Carroll, with the jury awarding Carroll $5 million in damages.
Trump is appealing the verdict and has continued to question her version of events.
On wednesday, during the trial, he said on Truth Social: “I did nothing wrong, except defend myself from false, malicious, and defamatory accusations by somebody writing a book, and deciding to put this fake nonsense into it, probably for the publicity she would get. She was not damaged, I am the one who was damaged.”
Judge Kaplan, who is presiding over both cases, ruled that since a jury had already found Trump liable for sexual assault, that could not be contested again, and the jury’s only task in the second trial wiould be to decide whether Trump harmed Carroll with his 2019 statements and, if so, the subsequent financial penalties.
Carroll is asking for $10 million in damages.
On Wednesday, Trump and Carroll saw eye to eye for the first time in years as the author took the stand to tell her side of the story, after she had her back to him all day on Tuesday.
Carroll was questioned by her attorney and recounted how she received hate messages on her email and social networks because of Trump’s comment.
“I am here because Donald Trump assaulted me, and when I wrote about it he lied and he shattered my reputation,” Carroll said.
The columnist and former TV host said that since the former president’s comments against her, she has received “scores and scores (of messages), sometimes hundreds a day,” calling her a liar, ugly and saying that because her accusations were fake, she was hurting actual victims.
She also read, in a broken voice, some of the death and rape threats she had received, and said she had been sleeping with a gun on her nightstand since 2019.
From rally to courtroom
On Monday, Trump scored his first victory in the presidential primaries by winning more than 50% of the vote in the Iowa caucuses, and on Tuesday, after attending the first day of the trial in New York City, he held a political rally in New Hampshire.
In addition to being in the midst of campaigning for the Republican primaries, closing arguments concluded Thursday in the civil fraud case against his family business, in which the former president faces a fine of up to $370 million and a lifetime ban from doing real estate business in New York State.
Trump faces four other criminal cases: two for trying to reverse the outcome of the 2020 election, in which he lost to current President Joe Biden; one for taking classified documents from the White House to his Florida residence, and one related to illegal campaign contributions used to pay porn actress Stormy Daniels to cover up a sexual encounter. EFE
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