Donald Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, botched an attempt to kill evidence that a jury may find important in the second E. Jean Carroll defamation lawsuit.
This current civil trial in New York follows the sexual battery and defamation lawsuit that Carroll previously won against Trump in May 2023, when a different jury ruled Trump was liable for sexually abusing Carroll at a department store and then defaming her character while denying the assault took place. Trump was ordered to pay Carroll $5 million in damages.
Carroll is now seeking $10 million in damages based on statements Trump made in 2019 in which he denied the assault, including one where he suggested Carroll made up the attack to sell copies of her book. Trump is arguing that the remarks he gave while president denying the assault took place are protected under absolute immunity as they fell under the scope of his official duties.
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The exchange between Habba and U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan on Thursday occurred after Robert Kaplan, attorney for the former Elle columnist, played a video of the former president in which he reportedly said: “This is a rigged deal, I had no idea who she was, nor could I care less.”
Prior to the playing of the video, Habba said she had no objection, according to Inner City Press reporter Matthew Russell Lee, who was in the courtroom.
The exchange played out as follows:
Judge Kaplan: “When was that?”
Habba: “We met and conferred and objected.”
Judge Kaplan: “This just came in without objection.”
Habba then replied, “Yes, but…” and Kaplan told her to “have a seat.”
This is a developing story.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.