U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan threatened to bar former President Donald Trump from attending his civil damages trial over comments he made during proceedings.
Former magazine writer and columnist E. Jean Carroll returned to a Manhattan federal court to testify as she seeks additional damages following a civil trial last year that determined former President Donald Trump defamed her.
Carroll claimed that Trump ruined her reputation when he was president by publically defaming her. She alleged that she lost millions of readers and, ultimately, her column at Elle Magazine as a result.
“I’ve paid just about as dearly as it’s possible to pay,” Carroll said in court. “I’m here because Donald Trump assaulted me, and when I wrote about it, he said it never happened. He lied and shattered my reputation. He lied last month. He lied on Sunday. He lied yesterday. And I am here to get my reputation back.”
During her testimony, Trump allegedly made comments and gestures that drew the ire of Kaplan.
“Mr. Trump has the right to be present here. That right can be forfeited, and it can be forfeited if he is disruptive,” Kaplan told Trump and his lawyer, according to NBC News.
“Mr. Trump, I hope I don’t have to consider excluding you from the trial. I understand you are very eager for me to do that,” the judge said, which prompted Trump to retort, “I would love it. I would love it.”
“I know you would, because you just can’t control yourself in this circumstance, apparently. You just can’t,” Kaplan said.
“Neither can you,” Trump responded.
Trump has accused Kaplan of bias and hostility, claiming that the case was ultimately politically motivated.
“The whole New York System is RIGGED against me because of the fact that I’m not only a Former Republican President, but also am the leading Republican Candidate, and beating Crooked Joe Biden, BY A LOT,” wrote the former president on social media. “This case is another example of Election Interference at a level never seen before.”
The jury in the 2022 civil trial found Trump guilty of sexual abuse and defamation but declined to convict the former president of rape. Carroll claimed that Trump assaulted her during a chance encounter at a department store in the 1990s. Trump has been adamant in his denial of the allegations and insists he had never met Carroll.
Trump was ordered to pay Carroll $5 million in damages in the initial trial, however, Carroll is seeking an additional $10 million in compensatory damages resulting from comments Trump made in 2019 while president and millions more in punitive damages.
Despite her claim that she lost her column as a result of the defamation, Elle Magazine has said that her contract was not renewed for “unrelated reasons.” The “Ask E. Jean” column ran for 27 years.
Carroll made the accusations against Trump in a book titled What Do We Need Men For? The book was a memoir that included her story about the alleged attack in the mid-1990s. The story drew significant media attention and eventually led to a civil trial.
Elle canceled its contract with Carroll four months early. The magazine offered to compensate her for the remaining columns but has not done so, according to Carroll.
“Because Trump ridiculed my reputation, laughed at my looks, & dragged me through the mud, after 26 years, ELLE fired me,” Carroll posted on social media. “I don’t blame Elle. It was the great honor of my life writing ‘Ask E. Jean.’ I blame @realdonaldtrump.”
