This courtroom drawing shows Senior Judge Lewis Kaplan (R), and former US President Donald Trump Donald (L), sitting next to his chief attorney, Alina Habba, on Jan. 25, 2024 in a federal court in New York City. (by AP)
Former US President Donald Trump abruptly stormed out of the court during the closing arguments in E. Jean Carrolls defamation damages trial, raising objections in the courtroom.
"The record will reflect that Mr. Trump just rose and walked out of the courtroom," Senior Judge Lewis Kaplan, who was overseeing the trial, said after Trump exited the New York courtroom on Friday.
This was the second trial for defamation of Carroll, an 80-year-old journalist and writer who was reportedly raped by Trump decades ago in a public place. In the first trial, which ended in May 2023, a federal jury found Trump had "sexually abused" her and defamed her when he denied her allegations and ordered him to pay US$5 million in damages. In this trial, Carroll is seeking $10 million in additional damages for Trumps comments about her after the first trial.
Carrolls lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, said that Trump "thinks with his wealth and power he can treat Ms. Carroll how he wants and will suffer no consequences."
Trump, who has called Carroll "sick" and a "wack job" among other insults "cant attack her just because he feels like it," Kaplan, told the jury after Trump walked out as she was telling jurors the former president is a "liar" who thinks "the rules dont apply to him."
She asked the jurors to hit Trump with a massive punitive damages award to stop him from continuing to defame Carroll. The attorney pointed to testimony at his 2022 deposition where Trump bragged that his Mar-a-Lago estate was worth $1.5 billion and his Doral property was worth over $2 billion.
"He doesnt care about the law or truth but does care about money and your decision on punitive damages is the only hope that he stops," Kaplan said, asking the jury to make him pay "lots and lots of money."
Trump then returned to the courtroom for his own attorneys defense presentation about an hour later.
Alina Habba, Trumps chief lawyer in this case, in her closing presentation, insisted that Trump was telling "the truth" in his comments regarding Carroll.
Trump, who briefly took the stand on Thursday for the second time since his presidential re-election campaign began, entered the courtroom about 10 minutes late for Fridays proceedings, just after Habba.
On the witness stand, which lasted for about three minutes, Trump was asked whether he stood by his claims in a 2022 deposition in which he called Carrolls allegations a "hoax" and a "con job." Trump replied, "100%. Yes."
Asked whether he ever instructed anyone to hurt Carroll, he claimed, "No. I just wanted to defend myself, my family and frankly the presidency." Kaplan ordered everything after the word "no" stricken. Asked on cross-examination whether this was the first trial involving Carroll that he has attended, Trump answered, "Yes."
In the meantime, another New York court sentenced a Trump aide to 4 months in prison for stonewalling Congress.
Peter Navarro, 74, a trade adviser to Trump who helped lay plans to remain in office after the 2020 election, was sentenced on Thursday to four months in prison for defying a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
The court found Navarro guilty in September of two misdemeanor counts of criminal contempt of Congress, making him the second Trump aide to face penalties related to one of the chief investigations into the Capitol riot.
Judge Amit P. Mehta, who was overseeing the case, had rejected Navarros primary defense, that Trump had personally directed him not to cooperate with the subpoena, and that he believed he was shielded by executive privilege.
"The words ‘executive privilege are not magical incantations," Judge Mehta said in handing down the sentence after a tense two-and-a-half-hour hearing in which he repeatedly took issue with Navarros claim of executive privilege.
"Its not a get-out-of-jail-free card," he said.
Navarro was also ordered to pay a $9,500 fine.
The former White House trade director and close Trump ally will stay out of jail for the time being while he appeals his sentence.
LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/29835
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