Former President Donald Trump again attended his defamation trial on Wednesday, making several lengthy posts on Truth Social to blast the judge and case and explain his upcoming absence while he attends his mother-in-law’s funeral.
After the court adjourned, he held a press conference at the Trump Building in New York to give an update about the case and criticize the judge for not delaying trial on Thursday.
“The first lady’s mother passed away, the funeral is tomorrow, and we would’ve assumed for a trial like this it’s not an emergency in terms of timing,” he said.
“The judge, it would’ve been very nice, could have let me go, because I want to be at every trial day because I saw what happened to the first one,” he added.
This case is one of two brought by writer E. Jean Carroll, who in 2019 made public allegations that President Trump sexually assaulted her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman in the mid-1990s. When President Trump, then still in office, publicly denied the allegations and said he did not know Ms. Carroll and suggested she was seeking publicity, she sued him for defamation. He has maintained that he has had nothing to do with Ms. Carroll.
Last May, Ms. Carroll was awarded $5 million after a jury found President Trump liable for “sexual battery.” After that, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled in a summary judgment that President Trump was liable for defamation because the facts were the same in the two cases.
President Trump said his lawyers had advised him not to attend the first trial because it was a “demeaning” event.
“There was no evidence, there was no anything. And so I didn’t go,” he said. “And I understood exactly what he meant when he said it was demeaning—”There is no reason to go and you shouldn’t go —and I decided, on this one, same judge, same judge, he’s a radical Trump hater. I said I will go to all days.”
On social media, he had written he felt “an obligation to be at every moment of this ridiculous trial” because of the judge, who he claimed was “extraordinarily hostile” to his side during his absence.
“I should have gone, if for no other reason than to witness and speak up against the abuse carried out by this Judge,” he wrote. “There was no way that case should have been lost! I was accused of something that I didn’t do.”
On Jan. 17, Ms. Carroll testified in court.
During the evening press conference, President Trump said that Ms. Carroll had admitted to deleting evidence during her testimony.
Attending Trial
He added that he wanted to be at the ongoing trial “100% of the time” now, but on Thursday he will attend his mother-in-law’s funeral with the entire family.Melania Trump’s mother, Amalija Knavs, passed away on Jan. 9 at age 78.
President Trump noted that his attorneys had asked for a delay in the trial so he could attend the funeral while not missing the trial.
The judge had denied this delay in a Jan. 14 memo, but allowed a delay to President Trump’s testimony to Jan. 22 even if the defense rests before then.
“On January 12, 2024, three days after the announcement of the death of Mrs. Trump’s mother and the day before the defendant’s request, his counsel informed the Court by email that Mr. Trump would attend the trial. The trial date in this case was set seven months ago,” the order reads.
The judge explained that delaying the start of the trial for a week would inconvenience jurors, court staff, and create logistical issues because of the security arrangements needed to accommodate President Trump, as this was what the defense attorneys had requested.
President Trump explained on social media he had only wanted a one-day delay on Thursday, and during the press conference claimed the judge told him to choose between the trial and the funeral.
Campaign Issue
In a footnote in the Jan. 14 memo, the judge pointed out that President Trump had planned a campaign appearance in New Hampshire for 7 p.m. on Jan. 17. President Trump headed out to this event immediately after the brief press conference.Most of President Trump’s campaign events are held during evenings, while the courts adjourn by around 4:30 p.m. ET, as occurred in this and a previous trial in New York.
President Trump has frequently been juggling court and campaign appearances, including regularly attending another separate civil case in New York since last October. As that trial came to a close, he said at a press conference that his cases have merged with his campaign, because his political opponents have made it a campaign issue.
“Well, see, my legal issues, every one of them, every one, are all set up by crooked Joe Biden, every one of them,” he said at the Trump Building in New York.
Trump Attacks Former Law Clerk
In his Truth Social posts, President Trump also said Judge Kaplan should have recused himself from both cases brought by Ms. Carroll because of his alleged bias and “hatred” of President Trump.He also singled out one of Ms. Carrol’s legal team, who he said “was one of the judge’s favorite law clerks” and a “huge” conflict of interest.
In the New York civil trial that just closed, President Trump ran into significant trouble when he similarly singled out the judge’s principal law clerk and alleged she was politically biased. It resulted in a gag order, a dragged-out appeals process that was ultimately unsuccessful, and two fines.
President Trump claimed it was impossible to obtain a fair trial under this judge, who was allowing evidence he argued should not be allowed, and excluding evidence the defense wanted to use.
In another similarity to President Trump’s New York trial, he is facing trial to determine damages because the judge had already found him liable in a summary judgment.
“This judge should be sanctioned for his abuse of power,” President Trump wrote. “He is not allowing me to properly defend myself from false accusations, he’s taking the unfair decision in the first trial, which we are appealing, and sticking selected parts of it into this trial. As to guilt or innocence, he is wrongfully forcing guilty, which is unAmerican. We have a very bad and hostile Judge, but we’re fighting all the way.”
