In an unfolding trial in New York on potential financial penalties against Donald Trump stemming from allegations of defamation made by writer E. Jean Carroll, there’s now repeatedly been a quick turnaround in using Trump’s own remarks against him as evidence.
On Thursday, journalist Erica Orden said that Roberta Kaplan, a lawyer for Carroll, was offering as evidence remarks that Trump had made just the preceding day concurrent to him attending the trial. Something similar was done previously with new disparagement towards Carroll on Trump’s Truth Social account.
“Carroll’s lawyer Robbie Kaplan is offering as evidence a video of Trump’s presser yesterday in which he again disparaged Carroll, calling her “a person I never knew” and calling the trial “a rigged deal,”” Orden shared on X, formerly Twitter.
This development is among many in which Trump and his team’s own actions have created problems for their side. Repeatedly, Trump lawyer Alina Habba has been chastised by presiding Judge Lewis Kaplan for actions including pushing (despite the judge’s earlier rejection) for a delay in the trial ostensibly allowing Trump to attend his mother-in-law’s funeral.
Trump, meanwhile, was threatened with removal for his evidently audible muttering as proceedings moved forward, which threatened to disrupt jurors’ considerations. And Kaplan (the judge) also took close control of Habba’s lines of questioning as she cross-examined Carroll herself with the writer on the witness stand. Habba tried to ask about a firearm that Carroll supposedly keeps, eventually getting to the seeming suggestion that Carroll may not be in perfect compliance with regulations. “Don’t even start,” the judge told Habba.
And further expanding the Trump team’s record of failure, they moved earlier for the judge’s recusal, meaning withdrawal from proceedings. They cited a so-called atmosphere of hostility and claimed personal connections between the judge and a lawyer for Carroll that supposedly warranted the move. The judge refused, keeping the jury trial progressing. Trump’s own stubbornness has produced a portion of Carroll’s defamation allegations, as even after leaving office he kept maligning her, creating new grounds for potential claims outside the lengthy disputes over whether presidential immunity shielded other comments made while president.
