Former U.S. President Donald Trump departs for his second civil trial after E. Jean Carroll accused Trump of raping her decades ago, outside a Trump Tower in the Manhattan borough of New York City, U.S., January 26, 2024.
Eduardo Munoz | Reuters
Donald Trump on Friday stalked out of a New York federal courtroom shortly after a lawyer for E. Jean Carroll began a closing argument at his sex defamation trial, where she urged jurors to award monetary damages “large enough that it will finally make him stop” slandering the writer.
Trump’s dramatic departure came minutes after the judge in the case warned his lawyer she was risking being tossed into jail before closing arguments began at the trial, which determine how much the former president owes E. Jean Carroll in monetary damages for defaming her when she accused him of raping her in the mid-1990s.
“The record will reflect that Mr. Trump just rose and walked out of the courtroom,” said Judge Lewis Kaplan.
Trump returned about an hour later after Carroll’s attorney finished her summation, and just before Trump’s attorney began her closing argument.
In her closing argument, Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan, who is not related to the judge, asked jurors to impose punitive damages on Trump for refusing to stop defaming Carroll even after a jury last year held him liable for doing so and ordered him to pay her $5 million.
Trump’s comments have sparked death threats and vicious emails and tweets directed at Carroll, the lawyer said.
“The dollar amount has to be very large,” Roberta Kaplan said. “It is at least as much and probably much more than the $12 million” that the lawyer noted an expert witness had testified it could cost to repair Carroll’s reputation after Trump accused her of investing her claim.
“Last trial, Donald J. Trump didn’t even bother to show up, but this trial where it is about damages he has been sure to be here and the one thing he cares about his money,” Kaplan said. “He doesn’t care about the law or…
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