Alina Habba, attorney for former President Donald Trump, blasted U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan for not allowing her client any defense in front of the New York jury deciding whether or not Trump defamed E. Jean Carroll over her allegations of rape.
“We were stripped of every defense, every single defense before we walked in there, and I am proud to stand with President Trump because he showed up, he stood up, he took the stand, and he faced this judge,” Habba said.
A nine-person jury found on Friday that Trump should pay $65 million in punitive damages to Carroll, a former Elle magazine columnist, and $18.3 million in compensatory damages for emotional harm and other damages for defaming her in his denial of her claim that he raped her in the mid-1990s. Carroll accused Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York, which Trump called a “hoax” and Carroll a “liar.”
Trump was already found liable for sexually assaulting Carroll during a separate defamation trial in May 2023. The jurors in that trial determined while there was not a preponderance of evidence to prove that Trump raped Carroll, there was enough evidence to prove that he sexually abused her and defamed her after she stepped forward with her claims.
Friday’s $83.3 million verdict adds to the $5 million Trump owes Carroll from the May trial, which broke down to $2 million for sexual abuse, $1.7 million for reputation repair damages, and $1 million for malice and injury related to defamation.
Habba said on Friday that she witnessed a “violation of our justice system,” accusing Kaplan of denying some of her expert witnesses to take the stand.
“I couldn’t prove that she didn’t bring in the dress, there was no DNA, there was no experts — my experts were denied, two of them — two of them — were denied to come in,” Habba said.
Kaplan threatened to send Habba to jail during Friday’s court proceedings for interrupting him during arguments over what Habba called a “five-hour gap” between when Carroll’s accusation surfaced and when Trump issued a statement in 2019. Habba wanted to show a slide including an array of tweets sent to Carroll before Trump had issued the statement, arguing it served as proof the tweets did not come as a result of the former president’s comments. However, Kaplan did not allow the tweets to be shown because they had not been entered as evidence.
The judge also threatened to kick Trump out of court last week for being “disruptive” during court. It followed a complaint from Carroll’s lawyer that the former president was making comments about the case that were audible to jurors, including calling the trial a “witch hunt” and a “con job.”
Trump delivered a brief two-minute testimony on Thursday, saying, “This is not America” as he exited the courtroom. Trump repeatedly interrupted Habba during his testimony, according to the Hill. Carroll’s lawyers previously questioned what Trump could testify about, given the narrow scope of the trial. They raised concerns about Trump using his testimony to turn “this trial into a circus.”
Kaplan had narrowed the scope of Trump’s testimony before he took the stand, saying the former president could only speak about his deposition and what his state of mind was when he made public claims about Carroll. The judge also reminded Habba that Trump had already been found liable for sexual abuse and defamation in his prior trial, so he could not deny those accusations from the stand.
However, Habba alleged on Friday night after the verdict that Kaplan “edited my questions, edited the response he was allowed to give” before Trump took the stand.
The attorney said they plan to “immediately appeal” the jury’s verdict, blaming the result on partisan politics.
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“We are in a New York jury, and that is why we are seeing these witch hunts,” Habba said.
“The record that was made in there, and the behavior I saw in there … gave us the perfect record on appeal and even if I needed it, which I don’t,” Habba added.
