Former US President Donald Trump abruptly left the defamation trial against him in New York by writer E. Jean Carroll on Friday, amid accusations of rape in the 1990s. As lawyers for both parties began their final arguments, the tempestuous businessman suddenly got up from his chair and jumped out of the courtroom of the federal civil court in Manhattan, according to an AFP journalist. However, he remained within the courthouse grounds.
Judge Lewis Kaplan could only note that “Mr. Trump just got up and walked out of the room.” The lawyer for plaintiff E. Jean Carroll, Roberta Kaplan, (no relation to the judge), had just said that the former president had “continued throughout the trial to defame” her client.
At the end of the morning, Mr. Trump had posted around twenty messages on his Truth Social platform once again accusing Ms. Carroll of having put together “a FALSE Monica Lewinsky story” – named after the White House intern scandal. who almost took away President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s – and “sought to EXTORT” money.
“A witch hunt”
Big favorite of the Republican primaries and very likely opponent of Joe Biden in the presidential election in November, Donald Trump added his usual political denigrations on Truth Social: “Joe Biden the corrupt and the scoundrel” would orchestrate “a witch hunt against his political opponent, managed and led by radical left democrats.”
The trial, which began on January 16, ends with the lawyers’ final arguments, but nothing says that the jury will make its decision immediately. He will have to determine whether Mr. Trump, 77, is responsible for defamation against Ms. Carroll, 80, who is demanding at least ten million dollars in compensation for moral and professional damage. E. Jean Carroll is a former columnist for the American edition of Elle magazine who accused Donald Trump of rape in 1996 in a fitting room of a New York department store.
Six criminal or civil trials for Trump
Last May, the same court, seized by another complaint from Ms. Carroll, had civilly sentenced the mogul to five million dollars in damages for sexual assault 28 years ago and defamatory comments against her in 2022. Thursday, the The ex-president briefly defended himself at the trial but his freedom of speech was strictly limited by the judge to avoid any verbal slippage.
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He simply indicated with a “yes” that he had made the remarks targeted by a first complaint in 2019 against accusations of rape that had just been launched, for the first time publicly, by E. Jean Carroll in a book. “She said something that I considered to be false,” Mr. Trump said. But again on Wednesday evening, he had launched on Truth Social 37 written attacks against Ms. Carroll whom he continues to denigrate and insult by calling her “crazy”, with a “phony story”, that he ” never seen in (his) life.” “She’s sick,” he repeated during the procedure.
Judge Kaplan, who presided over the first trial in May 2023, ordered that this second only focus on Donald Trump’s comments and not on the complainant’s accusations of rape. Including this case, Mr. Trump is the subject of six criminal or civil trials this year.
2024-01-26 19:06:00
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