'Did he respect the jury verdict? No.' Trump storms out of courtroom as Carroll lawyer speaks
NEW YORK — It seemed like Donald Trump was going to be stuck sitting in silence while E. Jean Carroll's lawyer repeated again and again that he'd sexually assaulted the advice columnist and then lied about it.
It was a jarring scene, with the former president — who has continued to attack Carroll as a liar — forced to listen as her attorney pointed out that a jury in a civil case had already found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming the writer.
But it didn't last long.
Minutes into the closing argument, the Republican presidential front-runner stood up and walked out.
"Did he respect the jury verdict?" attorney Roberta Kaplan asked the jury now slated to decide whether Trump will pay for defaming Carroll. "No, not at all," she said, he repeated his attacks "over and over."
And Trump was gone.
Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is not related to Carroll's lawyer, made a note for the record that Trump had left.
Roberta Kaplan continued, detailing why she believes the jury should force Trump to pay tens of millions of dollars in compensation for harming Carroll, plus more to make him stop defaming her.
From 11pm Thursday into Friday afternoon, Trump made 17 posts or shares to his social media site, Truth Social, totaling nearly 750 words, decrying the Carroll case, and attacking her account and the judge.
Trump returned before his own lawyer, Alina Habba, began her closing argument.
Lawyers for Carroll and Trump are battling for the jury's favor over whether the former president will have to pay a heavy price for defaming Carroll when, as president, he denied her allegations.
Trump lawyer threatened with jail
Before closing arguments had even begun Friday morning, Trump lawyer Michael Madaio was wrangling with Judge Kaplan over what could be presented to the jury. The judge ruled that tweets that hadn't been admitted into evidence during the trial couldn't be shown.
Trump, looking displeased, started speaking to Madaio on his left and then Habba on his right. Habba, who has repeatedly had heated exchanges with the judge during the trial, stood up to continue disputing the ruling.
"You are on the verge of spending some time in the lock-up," Judge Kaplan barked. "Now sit down." Habba re-seated herself.
More: 'I don't know who the woman is,' Donald Trump erupts at E. Jean Carroll defamation trial
Trump was found liable for sexually abusing Carroll after a separate civil trial last May and was ordered to pay her about $2 million for that abuse, plus about $3 million more for defaming her in 2022, when he called her allegation a "con job." Based on that verdict, Judge Kaplan ruled that Trump could not deny he assaulted Carroll in the current case.
The current trial focuses on the lengthy denials Trump made in June 2019 after Carroll first went public with allegations that Trump had assaulted her in a New York department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. Trump said that "people should pay dearly for such false accusations." Judge Kaplan has already ruled Trump's statements were defamatory in light of the May verdict.
The jury in Kaplan's Manhattan courtroom has now been asked to determine whether Trump should have to pay Carroll damages and, if so, how much.
Carroll testified that she received an onslaught of attacks, including death threats. Several of those were presented to the jury, including one that read, "stick a gun in your mouth and pull the trigger and send yourself to HELL."
'No one, not even a former president, is above the law'
Roberta Kaplan painted Trump as a man flouting the rules everyone else has to live by. She told the jury the law gives Carroll the right to get her reputation back.
"No one, not even a former president, is above the law," she told the jurors.
Roberta Kaplan reminded jurors that an expert for Carroll had testified that between 85 million and 104 million people saw the statements at issue in the case. She described that estimate as "conservative" because it only considered views the same day as the statements, and argued that the expert's high-end $12 million estimate of the cost to repair Carroll's reputation was therefore a minimum figure.
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Roberta Kaplan also argued that Carroll was owed at least $12 million to compensate her for pain and suffering, "and probably much more."
Those dollar figures — high as they are — paled in comparison to what the attorney suggested Trump should actually have to pay, because they didn't include punitive damages. Those extra damages are appropriate because Trump has continued to maliciously attack Carroll, and he needs to be deterred, she argued.
"He does care about money," she said. "How much will it take to make him stop?"
'She was looking to make a splash'
Trump managed to clash with the judge on that issue during just a few minutes on the witness stand on Thursday, as he tried to barrel through restrictions on his testimony. The former president was cut off and his words were stricken from the record after he began describing Carroll's accusation as "totally false."
It wasn't long into Habba's closing argument Friday that she was likewise being cut off by objections from Carroll's legal team that were sustained by the judge.
"Do you know why he has not wavered?" she asked the jury. It's because "it's the truth," she said. Judge Kaplan instructed the jury to disregard the comment. After another infraction, the judge gave Habba a stern warning.
"If you violate my instructions again, Ms. Habba, you may have consequences," he said.
More: In E. Jean Carroll case, expert says Trump could owe $12M (or much more) for defamation
Habba argued in her closing that Carroll's team had failed to prove it was Trump's denials, rather than Carroll's accusation, that unleashed the wave of attacks she got from his supporters.
"She was looking to make a splash," Habba said, adding that Carroll could have protected herself by making her Twitter profile page private.
Habba also pointed to old tweets by Carroll, an advice columnist who spent much of her career writing about women, men, and relationships, that referred to sex or penises.
Carroll "would have you believe her reputation was pure, angelic," Habba said.
Ultimately, Habba suggested the defamation case wasn't really about Trump.
"This is about some people in their mothers' basements who will always be mean on social media," she told the jurors.
More: Judge threatens to boot Trump from court
In subsequent argument to rebut Habba's closing, Carroll lawyer Shawn Crowley said Trump's team was engaged in an old tactic: blaming the victim.
"The man who sexually assaulted her, he gets to do whatever he wants," she said, including lying, defaming, and walking out of the courtroom.
"I'd ask you to think about what Donald Trump wants you to do," she told the jurors. She said he wants them to hold Carroll responsible after he sexually assaulted and defamed her, and caused her to get death threats.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump and Carroll closing arguments present fight over potential payout
