Trump to Take Witness Stand in Test of Demeanor Before Jury (2)

Two days after his decisive victory in the New Hampshire primary, Donald Trump is set to take the witness stand in New York to rebut defamation claims by writer E. Jean Carroll — testing his ability to sway a federal jury and a judge he’s already clashed with.

Trump’s plan to testify Thursday gives him a chance to personally refute Carroll’s claim that he shattered her reputation with derisive denials that he raped her in the 1990s. It will be a window into Trump’s behavior on the witness stand. If the combative billionaire ignores judicial restrictions on what he can say, as he has in the past, it could lead to courtroom fireworks that taint the jury or undermine his defense.

Before the trial began, US District Judge Lewis Kaplanheld Trump liable for defamation, leaving it to the Manhattan jury to decide how much, if any, the former president should pay Carroll. A separate jury last year found him liable for sexually assaulting her. Trump is appealing that verdict, and he’s called all of Carroll’s claims a “hoax” and a political “witch hunt.”

In a courtroom sketch, E. Jean Carroll turns towards Donald Trump at New York Federal Court on Jan. 16.

Photographer: Elizabeth Williams/AP

Trump’s demeanor in court has become a matter of intense public interest as he faces the prospect of four criminal trials while campaigning to return to the White House. In November, when he took the stand in New York state’s $370 million civil fraud trial against him, Trump clashed repeatedly with the judge and delivered rambling off-topic answers.

Just last week, in the Carroll trial, Kaplan threatened to expel Trump from court for loudly muttering complaints and denials while Carroll was testifying.

“You just can’t control yourself,” Kaplan said to Trump at one point, when the jury wasn’t present. “You can’t either,” Trump shot back.

Trump’s expected testimony, at first under friendly questioning by his lawyer Alina Habba, raises the prospect of another conflict with Kaplan, who has set strict limits on what the former president can say to the jury, including barring him from denying the assault took place. It also sets up what could be a tense cross-examination by Carroll’s attorneys, who can only benefit if Trump loses his cool in front of the jury.

The trial has been delayed for three days due to a sick juror, and Trump could always back out of taking the stand, even at the last minute. But Habba earlier this week made it clear Trump was eager to testify. On Monday, she asked the judge to postpone the trial so Trump could focus on the Tuesday primary in New Hampshire. He’s the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential election.

Defamation Suit

Carroll went public in 2019 — when Trump was president — with her claim that he’d raped her in a dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman departments store in Manhattan in 1996, after they bumped into each other while shopping. She sued him for defamation after he issued statements accusing her of fabricating the attack to sell a book and to advance a political agenda.

Carroll, who received waves of insulting and threating emails after making her allegation against Trump, is seeking at least $12 million in compensation for alleged damage to her reputation, plus unspecified punitive damages that can easily soar in such cases.

Donald Trump, E. Jean Carroll, Carroll’s then-husband John Johnson and Ivana Trump at a social event in 1987.

On Thursday morning, Carroll’s lawyers showed jurors a video clip of Trump’s deposition in the New York fraud case, when he boasted about his wealth. In the clip, Trump says he has more than $400 million in cash on top of many valuable properties. He said Forbes magazine had recently estimated his worth at $2.5 billion, which didn’t include his brand, which he described as his most valuable asset.

“I became president because of the brand,” Trump said in the taped deposition. “I think it’s the hottest brand in the world.”

Trump, wearing a dark suit and blue tie, leaned back in his chair and spoke occasionally with his lawyers while the deposition was played in the courtroom.

Trump will likely testify about the circumstances surrounding the defamatory statements, as well as his state of mind when they were issued, according to court filings by his lawyer. Trump also wants to testify about the so-called Access Hollywood video, which the judge admitted into evidence at Carroll’s request.

On Wednesday night, Trump took to social media to post part of a transcript from Carroll’s testimony in her earlier sexual-abuse trial, when she told the jury she decided to file that suit after being urged to do so by George Conway, co-founder of the conservative anti-Trump super-PAC Lincoln Project.

Trump also has railed against the financing for Carroll’s litigation, after it was disclosed that funding was provided by the billionaire co-founder of LinkedIn who is also a major donor to the Democratic Party.

The public got its first glimpse of the former president under oath in court when he took the stand in in November to defend himself against New York’s fraud claims. Trump shouted at Justice Arthur Engoron, called him “biased” and claimed the case against him was “crazy.” Engoron — who will determine the verdict and the penalty in that case without a jury — threatened to remove Trump from the stand for giving long, rambling answers to yes-or-no questions, even after being asked not to do so.

“Can you control your client?” Engoron asked Trump’s lawyer at the time as Trump looked on, hunched over on the stand. “This is not a political rally.”

Engoron, who didn’t have to contend with a jury in the state fraud case, ultimately allowed Trump to give many extended responses that didn’t directly answer questions posed by lawyers for the state, who had summoned him to testify. The judge appeared frustrated with Trump’s behavior, and seemed to give up on trying to limit his many verbal attacks while testifying. Trump chose not to take the stand for a second time in that case, declining to testify in his own defense.

Kaplan hasn’t demonstrated a willingness to give Trump as much leeway as the state court judge. Before the trial started, Carroll’s lawyer asked Kaplan to prevent Trump from turning the proceeding into a “circus” or a campaign event. The lawyer even suggested the judge be prepared to threaten Trump with contempt of court or financial sanctions — fearful that any antics, however brief, could taint the jury.

(Updates with Trump video deposition discussing his wealth.)

To contact the reporters on this story:
Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net;
Patricia Hurtado in Federal Court in Manhattan at pathurtado@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou at megkolfopoul@bloomberg.net

Steve Stroth

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