Former President Donald Trump raged at Judge Lewis A. Kaplan on social media as his attorney, Alina Habba, gave her closing argument in his civil defamation case involving E. Jean Carroll.
The damages trial came to a close on Friday after days of at-times contentious moments in the courtroom since it kicked off last week. Carroll, a former Elle magazine columnist, accused Trump of assaulting her in a Manhattan department store changing room in the mid-1990s.
A New York City jury last May found Trump liable and ordered him to pay $5 million in damages for sexual abuse and defamation against Carroll, whose attorneys are seeking at least $10 million in additional damages after the former president said she was lying about her accusations, he has no idea who Carroll is and she was not his “type.” Trump, meanwhile, continues to deny any wrongdoing in the case.
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Trump posted a flurry of attacks against Kaplan, the judge tasked with overseeing the trial, on Friday.
In one post, Trump described Kaplan as an “extremely abusive individual, the likes of which few have seen before!” In that post, he attacked Kaplan for not allowing his attorneys to use video of Carroll discussing peoples’ perception of rape as evidence in the trial.
Kaplan rejected the video, in which Carroll said she believes some people view rape as “sexy,” as evidence in the trial, on the basis of his attorneys not being allowed to argue he did not assault Carroll and that the video “needlessly and confusingly would invite the jury to decide this case on the basis of defendant’s view that those issues are open to discussion or reconsideration.”
In another post, he attacked Kaplan for being appointed to his post by former President Bill Clinton.
“The only right, honest, and lawful thing that Clinton-appointed Judge Lewis Kaplan, who has so far been unable to see clearly because of his absolute hatred of Donald J. Trump (ME!), can do is to end this unAmerican injustice being done to a President of the United States, who was wrongfully accused by a woman he never met, saw, or touched [a photo line does not count!], and knows absolutely nothing about,” he wrote.
Inside the courtroom, the final day of the civil trial featured several dramatic scenes, including Judge Kaplan warning Habba that she is on the “verge of spending some time in the lockup” after she and Michael Madaio, another Trump attorney, allegedly tried to include a slide showing X posts that they hadn’t entered into evidence.
Trump also suddenly left the courtroom while Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, was making her closing argument. It remains unclear why he left the court, but attorney Kaplan was criticizing Trump over his alleged failure to respect the verdict of the original defamation case before his exit.
Newsweek reached out to the Southern District of New York and Trump’s campaign via email for comment.
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