Trump nearly excluded from court by judge

THE judge overseeing Donald Trump’s defamation trial threatened to exclude him from court after he was accused of calling the case a “witch hunt” in earshot of the jury.

Mr Trump, 77, had already been found liable for sexually abusing and defaming E Jean Carroll in a civil trial last year. The new case focuses on comments he made in 2019 accusing Ms Carroll of making up the allegations to sell books. Yesterday Shawn Crowley, Ms Carroll’s lawyer, complained Mr Trump had been making loud comments to his legal team discrediting her while she was on the witness stand.

Mr Kaplan said while Mr Trump “has the right to be present here, that right can be forfeited” if he is “disruptive”. He added: “Mr Trump, I hope I don’t have to consider excluding you.”

Writing on Truth Social, Mr Trump said Mr Kaplan “suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome as anyone can see from his last outburst against me in the court. I did nothing wrong, except defend myself from false, malicious, and defamatory accusations by somebody writing a book”, he said.

Mr Trump, who claimed the “whole New York System is rigged” against him, added that he did not attend the first trial because his lawyers advised him it was “beneath me as a former president of the United States”.

In the afternoon session there were terse exchanges between Mr Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, and Mr Kaplan.

Ms Habba requested a mistrial on the grounds Ms Carroll, 80, said she deleted threatening messages she received on social media after receiving a subpoena. Ms Carroll said she stopped deleting the messages in 2023.

Ms Habba’s request was denied by Mr Kaplan.