Trump Manages Three Whole Minutes On Witness Stand Without Getting Held In Contempt

Please enjoy this dramatic reenactment of Donald Trump’s testimony today in the second E. Jean Carroll defamation trial.

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How’d they find a baby with the same hair? Amazing!

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After weeks of promising that he’d go down there and tell the jury that he’d never met the advice columnist, Trump sat in the witness chair for all of three minutes. Which is not to say that the jury was spared listening to the former president spew bile.

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The plaintiff’s counsel treated the panel to a highlight reel of Trump denying Carroll’s claims, admitting that he’d never read her book before he trashed it, mistaking a picture of Carroll for his first wife, and of course bragging about how fabulously wealthy he is — KA-CHING!

Trump’s counsel Alina Habba continued to demonstrate her … unexpected courtroom style.

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Habba: What was the gossip?
Carroll's lawyer: Objection!
Judge Kaplan: Sustained.
Habba: What kind of writer was Ms. Carroll?
Myers: Jounalistic.
Habba: What does that mean?

— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) January 25, 2024

Having already petitioned twice for a mistrial, she also moved for judgment as a matter of law, citing Carroll’s deletion of a handful of death threats — something Trump’s lawyers have known about for more than a year. At one point, Habba even sought to impeach her own witness.

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When court resumed after lunch, Judge Lewis Kaplan laid down the law, outside the presence of the jury. Trump would not, under any circumstances, be allowed to repeat his performance in New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron’s courtroom, where he shouted abuse at the court and made reference to excluded evidence on the witness stand.

Habba: Only one question?
Judge Kaplan: You can ask the 2d question.
Habba: "Why did you make the statements"-
Judge Kaplan: No.
Habba: I have a right to ask about intent.
Judge Kaplan: I will decide what he has a right to do here. That's my job, not yours

— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) January 25, 2024

After the jury returned and he was sworn in, Trump was asked if he stood by his deposition testimony. He did, he said, and had never intended to harm Carroll, but rather to “defend myself, my family and, frankly, the presidency.” When he pivoted to calling it a “false accusation,” the court immediately cut him off.

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Carroll’s counsel Roberta Kaplan simply asked Trump if he’d attended the first trial. And then it was over. The jury filed out, and Trump left soon after, inveighing to anyone within earshot that “This is not America. Not America. This is not America.”

As of this writing, the parties are in-court trying to work out the jury instruction in advance of closing arguments tomorrow morning. The court has not yet ruled whether to allow Trump to claim that Carroll had a duty to mitigate her damages, or whether those damages must be offset by Carroll’s positive media attention after the sitting president called her a liar and implied that she was too unattractive to sexually assault.

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It was all rather anticlimactic. But perhaps tomorrow someone will manage to get held in contempt. Fingers crossed!

Carroll v. Trump I [Docket via Court Listener]
Carroll v. Trump II [Docket via Court Listener]

Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes the Law and Chaos substack.

Topics

Courts, Donald Trump, E. Jean Carroll, Government