Donald Trump is heading to a Manhattan where he could testify against his rape accuser E. Jean Carroll in the sex abuse defamation trial.
The former president, 77, left Trump Tower and headed downtown just hours after flying in from a New Hampshire rally just 24 hours before Tuesday’s Republican primary.
He walked out of Trump Tower on Monday morning with a closed fist, days after he showed off red marks that turned out to be papercuts.
The frontrunner in the GOP race has been in and out of court during the dramatic trial where the judge has threatened to remove him for complaining too loudly.
His lawyer Alina Habba has also been involved in tense exchanges over her motions to dismiss the case and delay the trial so Trump could go to his mother-in-law’s funeral.
Donald Trump heads to court in Manhattan where he could testify against E. Jean Carroll in the sex abuse defamation trial
Trump attended the service on Thursday while Carroll testified and the case went on without him.
Because a different jury found last year that Trump sexually abused Carroll, U.S. District Judge Judge Lewis A. Kaplan has ruled that if the former president takes the stand now, he won’t be allowed to say she concocted her allegation or that she was motivated by financial or political considerations.
But even while just watching the proceedings, the voluble ex-president and current Republican front-runner hasn’t checked his contempt for the case.
Writing on her Civil Discourse blog, former prosecutor Joyce Vance wrote that a Trump testifying can only end badly as the trial is to see who much in damages he must pay Carroll.
The former president, 77, left Trump Tower and headed downtown just hours after flying in from a New Hampshire rally just 24 hours before Tuesday’s Republican primary
‘The smart money says there’s no way that his lawyers would expose him to cross-examination at the hands of Carroll’s highly competent legal team,’ she wrote.
‘Only the amount of damages is in question, and that’s not a topic Trump’s testimony is particularly helpful with; he can only make it worse. Those damages probably go higher if Trump takes the stand and acts in his predictable fashion,’ Vance added.
While Carroll testified last week, he complained to his lawyers about a ‘witch hunt’ and a ‘con job’ loudly enough so that the judge threatened to throw Trump out of the courtroom if he kept it up.
Trump piped down and stayed in court, then held a news conference where he deplored the ‘nasty judge.’
‘It´s a disgrace, frankly, what´s happening,’ Trump told reporters, repeating his claim that Carroll’s allegation was ‘a made-up, fabricated story.’
Besides tangling with Kaplan, Trump bucked the New York state judge in his recent civil business fraud trial involving claims that he inflated his wealth.
While Carroll (pictured) testified last week, Trump complained to his lawyers about a ‘witch hunt’ and a ‘con job’ loudly enough so that the judge threatened to throw Trump out of the courtroom if he kept it up
Trump waves to his supporters as he walks out of his midtown Manhattan property on Monday morning to head to his motorcade
Trump headed to court in Manhattan on the day before the New Hampshire primary
Trump was greeted by protesters amid speculation about whether he would take the stand
Trump, who denies any wrongdoing, delivered a brief closing argument of sorts without committing to rules for summations and assailed the judge from the witness stand.
He also was fined a total of $15,000 for what the judge deemed violations of a gag order concerning comments about court staffers. Trump’s attorneys are appealing the order.
In Carroll’s case, her lawyers have implored the judge to make Trump swear, before any testimony, that he understands and accepts the court´s restrictions on what he can say.
‘There are any number of reasons why Mr. Trump might perceive a personal or political benefit from intentionally turning this trial into a circus,’ attorney Roberta Kaplan wrote in a letter to the judge, who is no relation.
His return to a courtroom once again comes at a high-point on the political calendar. Trump faces former UN Ambassasdor Nikki Haley in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, which may be her best shot to try to seize momentum after he romped over GOP rivals in Iowa.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dramatically dropped out of the race Sunday. He has previously said Trump’s four criminal indictments and the cases against him fueled Trump through the primaries and denied ‘oxygen’ to other candidates.