Trump walks out of E. Jean Carroll trial after judge warns lawyer Alina Habba
Hindustan TimesFormer President Donald Trump abruptly walked out on closing arguments at his defamation trial Friday as a lawyer for writer E Jean Carroll urged a jury to award her client at least USD 12 million damages, saying Trump had shattered her reputation and her world by unleashing a flood of hate toward her through his public statements branding her a liar. The unexpected departure prompted Judge Lewis A Kaplan to speak up, briefly interrupting the closing argument to say: “The record will reflect that Mr Trump just rose and walked out of the courtroom.” The walkout came only minutes after the judge, without the jury present, threatened to send Trump attorney Alina Habba to jail for continuing to talk when he told her she was finished. The walkout occurred shortly after Roberta Kaplan said: “Donald Trump has tried to normalize conduct that is abnormal.” The closings occurred in the defamation case against Trump a day after he left the courtroom fuming that he hadn't been given an opportunity to refute Carroll's sexual abuse accusations. On Thursday, Trump testified that he stood “100 per cent" behind comments he made in an October 2002 deposition in which he denied Carroll's accusations, calling her “sick” and a “whack job.” Kaplan intends to instruct jurors Friday that the jury last year concluded that Trump had digitally penetrated Carroll in the department store, but the same jury did not find that he had raped her, according to how rape is defined under New York state law.