The former president of the United States Donald Trump (2017-2021) was back in the dock this Wednesday for a defamation case against the writer E. Jean Carroll, where he told the judge that he would “like” to be expelled from court.

Judge Lewis Kaplan warned the Republican that he could be removed from the courtroom if he made comments to his attorney while Carroll’s testimony was taking place.

“Trump has the right to be here (but) that right could be lost if he is disruptive. And if you ignore court orders, Mr. Trump, I hope I don’t have to consider excluding you from the trial.Kaplan said.

To which Trump responded: “I would like”.

He also echoed his comments on his social network Truth Social, where he published them today Kaplan is “a totally biased and hostile person.”

“The entire New York system is rigged against me by the fact that not only am I a former Republican President, but I am also the Republican frontrunner and I beat corrupt Joe Biden by a LOT” (although voter fraud in the 2020 election has never been proven), can be read in one of the many long messages published by Trump, who spent the entire day in court today.

Trump and Carroll, face to face

In the trial, Trump will have to respond to allegations of defaming Carroll when he claimed in 2019 that he did not know the writer, and his admission – made that same year – that the former president had sexually abused her over the past decade. from the 1990s was incorrect.

Carroll is seeking $10 million in damages.

Last May, a jury convicted Trump of sexual abuse and defamation of the writer, but not of rape. Since then, the former president has continued to insist he does not know her and has repeatedly questioned her version of events.

Today, Trump and Carroll saw each other for the first time in years as the writer took the stand to give her version of events since yesterday Carroll turned her back on her all day.

This Wednesday, Carroll was questioned by her lawyer and told how, in response to comments Trump made in 2019 – while he was president – received hate messages in his email and social networks messages that you deleted immediately after reading.

“I’m here because Trump (sexually) harassed me and when I said it, he denied it, which tarnished my reputation,” Carroll stated.

The columnist said that among the “hundreds” of messages she received every day at the time, there were three things in common: They called her a liar, ugly, and said that since her accusation was false, she was harming the victims of real complaints.

In addition, he commented in a broken voice on some threats and said that he has been sleeping with a revolver and 22 bullets on the bedside table since 2019, although he acknowledged today that he does not have a firearms permit.

The judge refuses to cancel the trial

Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, asked Kaplan for a mistrial, noting that Carroll admitted today that he deleted threatening messages between 2019 and 2023. information that may be crucial in determining compensation.

However, Kaplan rejected the motion and asked the jury – consisting of seven men and two women – to ignore this request.

For his part, Carroll said he removed them out of “instinct” and noted that he never informed police of the issue because he believed there was nothing they could do, or to friends, to keep them from worrying .

From court to rally

On Monday, Trump won his first election victory after winning more than 50% of the vote in the Iowa caucuses, and yesterday, after attending the first day of the trial, he held another political rally in New Hampshire.

The campaign for New Hampshire, which may pave the way for the final Republican candidates, will take Trump again today to that state, where – as he stated in a brief appearance before the press today – “We have a study that shows we are leading the way by a big margin”.

Trump will not attend tomorrow’s hearing because he will attend the funeral of his mother-in-law – Melania Trump’s mother – after Judge Kaplan refused to suspend the hearing for that reason. Kaplan, Trump told reporters, is not only an anti-Trump judge, “he is a disgusting judge.” (JO)