Trump lawyer Alina Habba responded: “No, you’re stopping him from being right here.”
Habba informed the choose that Trump plans to testify.
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Kaplan mentioned the one lodging he would make is that Trump can testify on Monday, even when the trial is in any other case completed by Thursday (all instances US). The choose beforehand rejected Trump’s request to delay the trial per week.
Trump sat attentively, evident and scowling at instances, as about six-dozen potential jurors filed into the courtroom and spent greater than an hour responding to questions posed by the choose overlaying the whole lot from their prior involvement with the judicial system to their political opinions.
He twisted round in his chair and nodded at two potential jurors — a person and lady — who stood when requested in the event that they agreed along with his false perception that the 2020 election was rigged, and once more when three individuals within the pool indicated they felt the previous president was being handled unfairly by the court docket system.
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The method supplied a window into the political opinions of a microcosm of New Yorkers, drawn from a pool that features Manhattan and northern suburban counties. Some famous private connections to Trump or his adversaries. One lady mentioned she had finished publicity for his daughter’s firm. One other mentioned her father offered transferring companies for a few of Trump’s buildings. Neither made the reduce.
Jurors chosen for the trial will stay nameless, even to the events, attorneys and judicial workers, and might be pushed to and from the courthouse from an undisclosed location for his or her security, Kaplan mentioned.
Trump has more and more made his courtroom travails — together with 4 prison instances — a part of his run to retake the White Home, positioning himself as a sufferer of partisan attorneys, judges and prosecutors and capitalising on information protection that accompanies his court docket visits.
Final week, Trump attended closing arguments within the New York legal professional normal’s fraud lawsuit in opposition to him — and ended up giving a six-minute diatribe after his attorneys spoke.
“I suppose you’d think about it a part of the marketing campaign,” Trump informed reporters final week.
True to kind, Trump fired off a collection of social media posts concerning the defamation case after arriving to the courthouse Tuesday by way of motorcade and coming into by means of a particular entrance not normally utilized by the general public. Posting on his Reality Social platform, Trump wrote that Carroll’s rape allegation was an “tried EXTORTION” involving “fabricated lies and political shenanigans.” He accused the choose of getting “absolute hatred” for him.
Carroll, 80, plans to testify concerning the injury to her profession and repute that resulted from Trump’s public statements. She seeks $US10 million in compensatory damages and tens of millions extra in punitive damages.
If Trump testifies, he might be underneath strict limits on what he can say. Due to the prior verdict, Kaplan has mentioned, Trump can’t get on the witness stand and argue that he didn’t sexually abuse or defame Carroll.
On this courtroom sketch, E. Jean Carroll, proper, turns round in direction of former president Donald Trump.Credit score: AP
Final Could, a special jury awarded Carroll $US5 million after concluding that Trump sexually abused her in a division retailer dressing room in spring 1996, then defamed her in 2022 by claiming she made it up after she revealed it publicly in a 2019 memoir. The jury mentioned Carroll hadn’t confirmed that Trump raped her.
Trump is interesting and hasn’t paid any of that award, although he positioned $US5.55 million in escrow to cowl the decision and different prices within the occasion he loses his attraction. One situation that wasn’t determined within the first trial was how a lot Trump owed for feedback he made about Carroll whereas president. That would be the new jury’s solely job.
Even earlier than potential jurors had been introduced into court docket on Tuesday, Trump legal professional Michael Madaio complained that the choose had made “inconsistent and unfair” rulings in opposition to Trump previous to the beginning of the trial. He mentioned the rulings “drastically modified our potential to defend this case and largely stripped us of our defences.”
He additionally argued that given Trump’s pending attraction, the trial shouldn’t proceed in any respect.
Trump, 77, has continued to take care of that he doesn’t know Carroll, that he by no means met her on the Bergdorf Goodman retailer in midtown Manhattan in spring 1996 and that Carroll made up her claims to promote her e-book and for political causes.
AP
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