Shortly after Donald Trump stormed out of the courtroom during closing arguments, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan shut down his lawyer Alina Habba as she tried to gaslight about the established fact that Donald Trump was found liable by a federal jury for the rape of E. Jean Carroll.
“Donald Trump, however, acts as if these rules or law just don’t apply to him,” lawyer Roberta Kaplan said, The Messenger reported Friday.
Legal reporter Adam Klasfeld is continuing to update from the courtroom, including the Judge shutting down more gaslighting and defamation from Trump’s lawyer.
In May of 2023, Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation of E. Jean Carroll, but he keeps on calling her “crazy” “sick” “wack job”and a “liar.” His lawyer, Alina Habba, tried to gaslight about Trump being found liable for rape by suggesting that he was found liable by a jury so it doesn’t count:
Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba appears again to deny Carroll’s claims, prompting an objection.
Judge Kaplan reminds the jury that it’s been established that Carroll wasn’t lying.
Habba: “It is established by a jury.”
Judge snaps to Habba: “It is established and you will not quarrel with me. You will finish your statement.”
Then she tried to suggest that Trump team has a right to speak, to which the judge countered “some kinds of speech and not others.”
Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba:
“Ladies and gentlemen, in our country, you have a constitutional right to speak.”
Objection
Kaplan: “Sustained. You have a constitutional right to do some kinds of speech and not others.”
Habba “ridicules” Carroll’s expert for noting that Trump’s supporters were “less likely to believe Carroll”:
“Trump’s attorney Alina Habba ridicules Carroll’s expert for noting that the former president’s supporters were less likely to believe Carroll:
“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, duh!”
Habba had minutes before this claimed that E. Jean Carroll was “enjoying this,” thereby suggesting that a rape victim who had been and continues to be defamed by a president of the United States and now former president but front-runner for the Republican nomination enjoys the threats and attacks that come from standing up to Trump and his sometimes violent cult.
Carroll’s lawyer Shawn Crowley rebutted according to Klasfeld, “The idea that the positive attention that Carroll’s gotten somehow cancels the harm from Trump for years? That’s nonsense.”
It should be noted that Trump stomped out of the courtroom during closing arguments that he obviously couldn’t tolerate hearing. That is to say, hearing someone say things about him that he felt were not true was so painful that he couldn’t handle staying in the courtroom.
Yet, Trump is only in this courtroom because he defamed E. Jean Carroll — not just in court, but in front of the entire world. And additionally, he did rape her and lying about it while attacking her claiming she is a liar is a grotesque abuse of his power.
Trump followed his exit of the court by ranting on social media about both the Judge and E. Jean Carroll, though he returned to hear his lawyer try to defame Carroll again, and suggest nullifying a jury’s finding.
Carroll is seeking at least $10 million dollars this time, in an effort to force Trump to comply with the law and stop defaming his rape victim.
Team Trump tried to argue that the law doesn’t apply to them, and that when it goes against them, it should be ignored. The Judge wasn’t having it, and that’s a good sign for democracy.
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Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
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