Donald Trump was threatened with expulsion from his Manhattan civil trial after he repeatedly ignored a warning to keep quiet while writer E. Jean Carroll testified that he shattered her reputation after she accused him of sexual abuse.
Judge Lewis Kaplan told the former president on Wednesday that his right to be present at the trial will be revoked if he remains disruptive. After an initial warning, Carroll’s lawyer said Trump could still be heard making remarks to his lawyers, including “it is a witch hunt” and “it really is a con job.”
“Mr Trump, I hope I don’t have to consider excluding you from the trial,” Kaplan said in an exchange after the jury was excused for lunch, adding: “I understand you’re probably eager for me to do that.”
“I would love it,” Trump shot back, shrugging as he sat between lawyers Alina Habba and Michael Madaio at the defence table.
“I know you would like it. You just can’t control yourself in this circumstance, apparently,” Kaplan responded.
“You can’t either,” Trump muttered.
Kaplan cracked down after Carroll lawyer Shawn Crowley complained for a second time that Trump could be heard “loudly saying things that are false” as he sat at the defence table, frequently tilting back in his chair and leaning over to speak with his lawyer.
Among his comments, Crowley said, were that the longtime Elle magazine advice columnist was lying about the assault and that she seemed to have “gotten her memory back.” Crowley suggested that if Carroll’s lawyers could hear Trump from where they were sitting, about 3.7 metres from him, jurors might’ve been able to hear him too.
“I’m just going to ask that Mr Trump take special care to keep his voice down when conferring with counsel to make sure the jury does not hear it,” Kaplan said before jurors returned to the courtroom after a morning break.
Earlier, without the jury in the courtroom, Trump could be seen slamming his hand on the defence table and uttering the word, “man,” when the judge again refused his lawyer’s request that the trial be suspended on Thursday so he could attend his mother-in-law’s funeral in Florida.
Carroll, 80, was the first witness in a Manhattan federal court trial to determine damages, if any, that Trump owes her for remarks he made while he was president in June 2019 as he vehemently denied ever attacking her or knowing her. A jury last year already found that Trump sexually abused her in 1996 and defamed her when he made a round of denials in October 2022.
Carroll’s appearance, which continues Wednesday afternoon (local time), was somewhat of a tightrope walk because of limitations the judge has posed on the trial in light of the previous verdict and prior rulings he’s made restricting the infusion of political talk into the proceedings. Habba lobbed multiple objections seeking to prevent the jury from hearing details of Carroll’s sexual assault allegations.
