Judge threatens Donald Trump with blocking his access to the defamation trial in New York

The judge in charge of the defamation trial against former President Donald Trump threatened this Wednesday to prevent him from accessing the courtroom. where this Wednesday the journalist and plaintiff E. Jean Carroll testified, who last May already won another case for sexual assault and defamation.

The tycoon's comments calling it “a witch hunt” or a “scam” were audible to the jury during Carroll's testimony throughout the morning.led to a protest from his lawyer Roberta Kaplan, before the investigating judge Lewis Kaplan (who, despite having the same last name, are not family).

“Mr. Trump has the right to be present here,” said the judge who argued throughout the morning with the magnate's lawyer Alina Habba over her continued objections. But she warned him: “You can lose this right if you interrupt, which is what I have been informed, and if you ignore court orders,” according to the judicial press that attended the trial.

In the midst of his campaign for the Republican Party primaries, For the second day, the magnate attended the defamation trial against him in which the former columnist from Elle magazine claims 10 million dollars for damages to her reputation and career.

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At the height of the #Metoo movement, the journalist denounced in a book and in an article that the then president had sexually assaulted her in 1996, to which Trump responded that the story of the assault “was totally false” and that Carroll “was not its type”.

“I'm here because Donald Trump attacked me and when I wrote about it he lied and tarnished my reputation,” the 80-year-old writer and former journalist told the jury, according to CBS television.

“I want to recover my reputation,” he added as the 77-year-old former president looked on, flanked by his lawyers, who on Monday swept the first Republican Party primary in the state of Iowa in his race to return to the White House in the November elections.

This trial is the second in eight months in which Carroll faces Trump. Last May, a jury agreed with the columnist and sentenced the magnate to pay her $5 million in damages: two for sexual assault and three for defamation for other statements that occurred in 2022. Trump has appealed the ruling.

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Unlike then, Judge Lewis Kaplan determined that Carroll does not have to prove that there was sexual assault again, given the jury's decision in May.

“I have never seen that woman in my life (…) I have no idea who she is,” Trump repeated last week, calling her a “liar” and “moron.”

Trump's defense team, led by Alina Habba, assures that what the former Elle magazine columnist was looking for is “fame and notoriety” to sell her book.

Although he is not required to attend this civil trial, Trump has decided to do so. Last night, after participating in a rally in the state of New Hampshire, the second round of the primaries on January 23, and in the midst of snow and freezing temperatures, The Republican magnate returned to New York to attend Carroll's interrogation on the second day of the trial.

On Tuesday, after his overwhelming victory in Iowa, the Republican also attended jury selection throughout the morning.

“I want to attend all my trials,” Trump said last week as he attended the end of another embezzlement trial. prosecutor also in a Manhattan court, in which two of his children and the family business are also accused.

With several legal fronts open, Trump considers himself the victim of a “witch hunt” orchestrated from the White House to hinder his return to the presidency.

AFP