Former President Donald Trump said he regrets taking his lawyers’ advice in skipping the first trial in the two defamation lawsuits filed against him by writer E. Jean Carroll.
In September, U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan found Trump liable for defaming Carroll, a former Elle columnist, after the former president said in 2019 that Carroll was lying about sexual assault accusations she leveled against him. Carroll alleged that Trump sexually assaulted her in a New York City department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. A civil trial is currently underway to determine how much Trump will pay in damages.
In May, a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation in a separate lawsuit brought on by Carroll in 2022. The ex-columnist was awarded $5 million by the jury. This time around, Carroll is seeking more than $10 million in damages. Like the 2022 lawsuit, the 2019 lawsuit is over Trump’s denial of Carroll’s sexual assault allegations. Trump has maintained his innocence in both lawsuits.
Trump did not attend, let alone testify during the trial for Carroll’s 2022 lawsuit, which he said he ended up regretting.
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The former president wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Wednesday, “I feel an obligation to be at every moment of this ridiculous trial because we have a seething and hostile Clinton-appointed Judge, Lewis Kaplan, who suffers from a major case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
He continued: “In the first trial, with the same Judge, where I was asked not to go by my lawyers because it was ‘beneath me as a former President of the United States,’ he was reported to have been extraordinarily hostile to our side. But I should have gone, if for no other reason than to witness and speak up against the abuse carried out by this Judge.”
Like in the four criminal cases and one other civil case Trump is up against, the former president claims that the charges against him are politically motivated, as he is the current GOP front-runner in the 2024 presidential election.
“The whole New York System is RIGGED against me because of the fact that I’m not only a Former Republican President, but also am the leading Republican Candidate, and beating Crooked Joe Biden, BY A LOT. This case is another example of Election Interference at a level never seen before,” Trump wrote in another Truth Social post on Wednesday.
Newsweek reached out to Trump’s campaign spokesperson on Wednesday via email for comment.
Trump showed up for the beginning of the trial on Wednesday, where he and Kaplan had a tense exchange.
Kaplan threatened to kick Trump out of court if he continued to make comments to his lawyers that the jury could hear. Carroll’s lawyer Shawn Crowley said Trump was saying things like, “It is a witch hunt.”
“Mr. Trump has the right to be present here,” Kaplan said. “That right can be forfeited and it can be forfeited if he is disruptive, which is what has been reported to me. Mr. Trump, I hope I don’t have to consider excluding you from the trial. I understand you’re probably eager for me to do that.”
“I would love it,” Trump said.
“You just can’t control yourself in this circumstance, apparently,” Kaplan replied.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.