U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, the federal judge presiding over former President Trump's defamation case brought by columnist E. Jean Carroll, said during Friday's trial that Trump's lawyer Alina Haba He threatened to send her to prison for interfering.
“You're going to have to spend some more time in captivity. Now sit down,” Mr. Kaplan told Mr. Hubba during closing arguments.
The moment occurred minutes into Friday's trial, just before jurors entered the hearing room for the day.
The parties agreed that as part of a presentation by Trump's team, Carroll would prove a causal link between Trump's denial that he sexually assaulted the columnist and the emotional and reputational damage she suffered. They were arguing over a slide that said they had not done so.
Many of Haba's claims are based on what she described as the “5'' statements from the time Carroll's accusations surfaced in 2019 until Trump released the first statement in the case that was ruled defamatory. The focus was on the “time gap.”
The slides included a series of tweets attacking Carroll that were allegedly sent to Carroll before Trump's statement, and the threats the columnist subsequently received stemmed from subsequent comments by the then-president. It was an attempt to show that it is not something that can be done.
Although the slides did not visibly show the content of the tweets, Mr. Kaplan did not allow them to be viewed because the tweets were not in evidence.
Even after Mr. Kaplan refused to allow Mr. Hubba to submit her slides, she continued to speak, saying she wanted to put her case on the record, prompting the judge to threaten her.
Carroll is suing Trump for defamation over his 2019 denials that he sexually abused her in the 1990s. Last year, Trump was found responsible for sexual abuse and had to pay Carroll $5 million.
She is currently seeking more than $24 million in damages for President Trump's denials.
Mr. Trump, who went out of his way to appear in court even though he was not required to do so, left the courtroom on Friday minutes after Mr. Carroll's lawyer began his closing remarks.
There were some intense moments in the trial, which was postponed after at least one juror felt unwell. Mr. Kaplan last week threatened to remove Mr. Trump from the court, calling him “disruptive.”
Haba and the judge regularly sparred, with the judge repeatedly reprimanding the lawyer and Haba often shaking his head in disagreement. President Trump described the judge as biased against him.
Closing statements in the Carroll trial concluded Friday, and the jury began deliberating just before 2 p.m. about how much Mr. Trump owes Mr. Carroll.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
