THE STAR
Donald Trump stormed out of closing arguments at his defamation trial Friday as a lawyer for writer E. Jean Carroll urged a jury to award at least $24 million in damages for the “storm of hate” caused by the former president as he reacted to Carroll’s claims that he sexually attacked her. He returned later when his lawyer argued on his behalf.
Just minutes after attorney Roberta Kaplan began her closing argument in Manhattan federal court, Trump suddenly rose from his seat at the defense table and walked toward the exit, pausing to scan the packed courtroom as members of the Secret Service leaped up to follow him out.
The unexpected departure prompted Judge Lewis A. Kaplan to speak up, briefly interrupting the closing argument to note: “The record will reflect that Mr. Trump just rose and walked out of the courtroom.” He did not return for the reminder of the first closing argument.
Later, Trump returned to the courtroom to hear his lawyer, Alina Habba, argue that he should not be made to pay Carroll for comments he made that Carroll’s lawyers say set off a flood of hate messages from strangers.
Early in her closing, Habba showed the jury a video in which Trump said a jury’s verdict last year finding that he had sexually abused Carroll was “a disgrace” and “a continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time.”
“You know why he has not wavered?” Habba asked the jury. “Because it’s the truth.”
That statement prompted an objection that the judge sustained with a warning that “if you violate my instructions again, Ms. Habba, you may have consequences.”
The comment carried extra weight because just before arguments began, the judge — without jurors in the room — threatened to send Habba to jail for continuing to talk when he told her she was finished.
Roberta Kaplan and the judge are unrelated.
Trump, who was not required to attend the civil lawsuit proceedings, had appeared agitated all morning, vigorously shaking his head as Carroll’s attorney branded him a liar who had incited a “social media mob” to attack her client.
“This case is about punishing Donald Trump for what he’s done and what he continues to do,” Roberta Kaplan continued. “This trial is about getting him to stop.”
Nine jurors will start deliberating later in the day whether Carroll, a longtime advice columnist, is entitled to more than the $5 million she was awarded in a separate trial last year.
The final remarks from the lawyers come a day after Trump managed to sneak past a federal judge’s rules severely limiting what he could say during his turn on the witness stand, which wound up lasting just 3 minutes. He left fuming that he hadn’t been given an opportunity to refute Carroll’s sexual abuse accusations.
“She said something that I considered to be a false accusation,” Trump said, later adding: “I just wanted to defend myself, my family and, frankly, the presidency.” The jury was told by the judge to disregard both remarks.
A different jury last May concluded that Trump sexually abused Carroll in the spring of 1996 in the changing room of a luxury Manhattan department store. It also found that he defamed her in 2022 by claiming she made up the allegation to sell a memoir.
