Former US President Donald Trump leaves Trump Tower for Manhattan federal court for the second defamation trial against him, in New York City on January 17, 2024.
Charly Triballeau | AFP | Getty Images
A New York federal judge snapped at a lawyer for Donald Trump on Wednesday and later told the former president “to keep his voice down” at the trial that will determine how much he has to pay E. Jean Carroll for defaming her after she said he raped her.
“I said sit down!” Judge Lewis Kaplan told Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba when she repeated a call to postpone the trial so that Trump could attend his mother-in-law’s funeral
Habba replied, “I don’t like to be spoken [to] like that … I will not speak to you like that.”
Kaplan shot back, “It is denied. Sit down.”
Trump grumbled, “Nasty guy,” referring to Kaplan.
The tense exchange occurred before Carroll began testifying about the harm she suffered from Trump’s defamatory statements as president in 2019, and afterward, when he denied her claim that he raped her in a department store in the mid-1990s.
Trump slammed the defense table at one point, shook his head in anger and disbelief, and made comments that were audible in the Manhattan federal courtroom when Carroll answered questions from the witness stand.
Former magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll (R) arrives at Manhattan federal court in New York on January 17, 2024 for the second defamation trial against former US President and 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images
After a recess in the proceedings, Carroll’s lawyer Shawn Crowley told Kaplan that Trump had been sitting at the defense table and loudly saying things including, “Carroll’s statements are false,” and “now she seems to have gotten her memory back.”
The judge admonished Trump after the recess.
“Before we bring in the jury I’m just going to ask Mr. Trump to take special care to keep his voice down so the jury does not overhear it,” Kaplan told him.
In her testimony, Carroll said, “I am here because Donald Trump assaulted me and when I wrote about it he lied and he shattered my reputation.”
“He lied last month, on Sunday, yesterday and I want my reputation back,” the former Elle magazine advice columnist said.
“I am 80 and I spent 50 years building my reputation. My column was very popular,” Carroll testified. “Yesterday I opened up Twitter and it said, ‘Hey lady you’re a fraud.’ “
Lawyer Alina Habba stands to argue with Judge Lewis Kaplan during jury selection in the second civil trial after E. Jean Carroll accused former U.S. President Donald Trump of raping her decades ago, at Manhattan Federal Court in New York City, U.S., January 16, 2024 in this courtroom sketch.
Jane Rosenberg | Reuters
The case will determine the monetary damages Trump must pay Carroll for defamatory statements he made about her in 2019 while president and later when he denied her allegations.
Habba last week unsuccessfully asked Kaplan to postpone the trial so that Trump could attend the funeral of his wife Melania Trump’s mother, Amalija Knavs, in Florida on Thursday without having to miss being at the trial that day.
Trump at a campaign event earlier this week condemned Kaplan for refusing to postpone the trial, calling him and other judges in cases involving him “animals.”
When the trial began Tuesday with jury selection, Habba complained about Kaplan’s refusal to delay the case until after the funeral.
She resurrected the complaint on Wednesday morning, with Trump sitting close to her.”My client and I would like to reiterate that she [Carroll] can sit here every day and she did not have death in her family and it is insanely prejudicial,” Habba said.
“I am asking your honor to have the kindness to let my client be with his family and not miss trial,” the lawyer said.
Kaplan again rejected the request and sharply told Habba to “sit down” when she persisted.
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