The New York judge presiding over Donald Trump’s defamation case explained his decision to dismiss the mistrial request from Trump’s lawyer as ‘pointless.’
Pointless Legal Move?
Judge Lewis Kaplan, responding to Alina Habba’s January 23 mistrial request letter, stated that the motion was ‘lacking any merit’ and that granting a mistrial would be ‘entirely pointless.’
Hefty Payout
In January, Trump was ordered to pay E. Jean Carroll, a former Elle columnist, $83.3 million for comments made in 2019. A jury previously found Trump guilty of sexually assaulting and defaming Carroll, and the latest trial determined the total damages.
Mistrial Request
During Carroll’s cross-examination, where she mentioned deleting death threats from emails after her rape accusations against Trump became public, Habba initially called for a mistrial in front of the jury.
Courtroom Strategy Falls Short
The court quickly rejected Habba’s argument that Carroll should have preserved the emails for examination during the trial. This oral motion in court was promptly dismissed by Judge Kaplan, who criticized it as ‘untimely’ and ‘entirely pointless,’ especially since Carroll had admitted to deleting the emails.
Habba later requested a mistrial in a January 23 letter, citing Carroll’s habit of deleting threatening emails.
Claims Dismissed
Habba accused Carroll of ‘actively deleting evidence’ needed to support her damages claim. Kaplan, in his response, described this as a ‘reconsideration’ of the in-court motion, dismissing it as ‘doubly frivolous.’
Repeating Trial Issues
Judge Kaplan noted that neither Habba nor Carroll’s counsel had successfully identified which specific materials were deleted or their deletion timeline. He stated Habba’s motion lacked merit as Trump didn’t attempt to recover the deleted material through discovery.
Kaplan emphasized that a new trial, resulting from a mistrial, would face the same issues, leading to jury dismissal and reselection.
Multimillion-Dollar Damages Order
Trump was ordered to pay $7.3 million in compensatory damages, $11 million for reputational repair, and $65 million in punitive damages to Carroll. Despite denying any misconduct and planning to appeal the verdict, Trump must comply with this ruling.
Frustration with Ruling
Post-trial, Habba criticized Kaplan on Newsmax, expressing her frustration over the ruling.
“We have a judge that is trying to throw a civil attorney, threatening me that he’s going to put me in the ‘clink,’ I believe was what he said[…]because I objected to his ruling on an evidentiary issue,” she stated on Monday.
A Stern Warning
Habba challenged the court’s decision to exclude a specific PowerPoint slide from her closing argument. She expressed her disagreement, stating, “Your honor, I have to put something on the record, I completely disagree with you, the evidence rules don’t say it.”
In response, Judge Kaplan warned, “Sit down, Ms. Habba, or I am going to put you in jail.”
Courtroom Tensions
On January 26, during this heated exchange, Kaplan cautioned Habba that she was close to ‘spending some time in the lockup.’
Additionally, Kaplan had imposed restrictions in the courtroom, prohibiting discussions about Carroll’s past romantic and sexual history and any implications denying Trump’s sexual abuse of her.
A One-Sided Battle?
On Newsmax, Habba criticized Judge Kaplan for preventing the jury from viewing certain video footage and tweets she claimed were crucial to their case.
She further noted, “That jury in that silo wouldn’t know that because they’re not allowed on the internet,” she said. “They hear the rulings and they see a judge putting an attorney down, then that jury is going to believe whatever the judge is leading them to believe.”
Confidence in Winning Appeal
Habba expressed confidence in winning on appeal due to these alleged one-sided rulings, stating, “On appeal, those rulings will come up, the one-sidedness will come up, and we will prevail.”
Performance Questioned
During the trial, some legal experts questioned Habba’s performance, especially after she admitted in court, ‘I don’t know how to try this case, Your Honor,’ following the denial of several pre-trial requests.
Legal Team Shake-Up
Post-verdict, Trump announced on Truth Social his plan to interview new law firms for the appeal, signaling a possible replacement for Habba. He described the case as a ‘ridiculous and unfair Witch Hunt’ overseen by a biased judge.
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