Donald Trump’s first criminal trial could be getting under way this very month if the ex-president’s wide-ranging ambitions to disrupt the proceedings fall short, and former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann is predicting it could bring procedural/legal disaster for the ex-president and current presumptive pick from Republicans this year for the presidential race.
“The upcoming Trump NY criminal trial may be a repeat of the disastrous second Trump -Carroll defamation trial if/when Trump takes control of the defense, as he can’t help himself at playing lawyer and smarter than everyone, when he’s neither,” said Weissmann, who spent some time in federal service on the Russia investigation led by Robert Mueller.
During the trial that Weissmann referenced, which took place in New York before federal Judge Lewis Kaplan, the jury considered the question of the level of financial penalty to impose on Trump for upheld allegations from writer E. Jean Carroll of defamation. She brought the civil claims over Trump’s antagonistic responses to Carroll’s account of Trump sexually assaulting her in the 1990s, which was the subject of other civil claims largely upheld by a jury at an earlier trial.
Trump didn’t attend the first proceedings but showed up for the second trial despite no requirement for him to join the process, and while there, he was combative, as was his team. Trump lawyer Alina Habba repeatedly sparred with Kaplan. At one point, the judge even suggested to Habba that she could face time in detention in connection to her antagonistic treatment of the proceedings. And Kaplan once threatened Trump with ejection during the same trial proceedings.
“Mr. Trump has the right to be present here. That right can be forfeited,” the judge said amid disputes over Trump apparently grumbling during trial, adding: “Mr. Trump, I hope I don’t have to consider excluding you from the trial.”
