Former President Donald Trump got into a heated exchange with U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan on Wednesday during his E. Jean Carroll defamation trial.
Trump was in the courtroom in Manhattan for the second straight day as a jury weighs how much he will have to pay Carroll after he was found liable last year of sexually abusing and defaming the magazine columnist, The New York Post reported. The former president was scolded by the judge after Carroll’s lawyer accused him of talking loudly about Carroll.
“Mr. Trump has a right to be present here but that right can be forfeited if he is disruptive … or disregards our orders,” said Kaplan, according to the Post.
Then Carroll’s lawyers told the judge that Trump had said, within earshot of the jurors, “It is a witch hunt. It really is a con job.”
“Mr. Trump, I hope I don’t have to —” the judge began to reprimand Trump again.
“I would love it. I would love it,” Trump reportedly said, throwing his hands in the air.
“I understand that you are probably very eager for me to do that,” Kaplan responded. “I know you would like that, because you just can’t control yourself in this circumstance, apparently.”
“You can’t either,” Trump fired back.
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Trump posted on Truth Social on Tuesday, saying that Kaplan has “absolute hatred” for him.
“The only right, honest, and lawful thing that Clinton-appointed Judge Lewis Kaplan, who has so far been unable to see clearly because of his absolute hatred of Donald J. Trump (ME!), can do is to end this unAmerican injustice being done to a President of the United States, who was wrongfully accused by a woman he never met, saw, or touched (a photo line does not count!), and knows absolutely nothing about,” Trump said.
Trump’s legal team asked the judge if the trial could be delayed so the former president could go to his mother Amalija Knavs’ funeral on Thursday. Kaplan denied the request, and then also denied granting an adjournment on Thursday so Trump could make it to the funeral. Kaplan reportedly said Trump did not have to be present for the entire trial and could testify on a different day.
Carroll is seeking $10 million in damages on top of the $5 million that a jury ordered Trump to pay last spring. In an article published in 2019, Carroll accused Trump of raping her in a department store changing room in 1996. Trump denied the sexual assault allegation, and then the magazine columnist sued him for defamation. Trump, the leading candidate in the Republican presidential primary, has maintained that he never met Carroll and called her allegations “fake.”
Amanda Prestigiacomo contributed to this report.