New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman said former President Trump is using his legal woes, including his appearance this week in author E. Jean Carroll's defamation trial, to fuel his re-election campaign.
“So he's blended his litigation with his political work, so it's indistinguishable,” she told co-hosts Gayle King and Charles Barkley on CNN's King Charles. “He's raising money for all his lawsuits.”
Haberman, who wrote the book “The Confidence Man: The Rise of Donald Trump and the Fall of America,'' suggested that Trump's civil suit was more about gaining support than an actual trial.
“This was a civil case. He didn't need to be there today. He chose to be there,” she claimed in an interview. Highlighted by Mediaite. “This is not a criminal trial where he has to appear in court.”
“But most of his supporters don't know the difference,” Haberman continued. “They don't know the difference. They just hear the noise that he's under attack and tune in that way and give him the money that way.”
She added, “And he's really leaning into this because he's learned the lesson that it benefits him politically.”
Trump, the current front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, took a break from campaigning to attend a trial in New York. He was also nearly kicked out of the courtroom by Judge Robert Kaplan for being “disruptive.”
The libel trial comes months after Carroll accused Trump of rape in the 1990s and Trump was convicted of sexual assault. Carroll was ordered to pay $5 million in damages, but she denies any wrongdoing.
In the ongoing case, Carroll is seeking at least $10 million in damages for repudiation over claims the author made in 2019.
Haberman claimed that Trump was trying to take the spotlight away from the actual incident and put it back on himself.
“In this case, he showed up for her testimony, so we're not talking about her testimony, we're talking about the fact that he was making noise,” Haberman said. insisted.
Trump was not expelled from the trial, but she claimed the former president would have actually wanted to be expelled from the trial.
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