Former President Donald Trump's lawyer had a nasty exchange with a New York federal judge who asked him to “sit down” during a defamation lawsuit trial.
Alina Habba informed Judge Lewis Kaplan that she didn't like being told the rude way he had addressed her, but it didn't work because the judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ordered him to sit down.
The exchange came on the second day of proceedings in the defamation lawsuit against the former president by 80-year-old columnist E. Jean Carroll. Trump's lawyer was trying to put the trial on hold so he could attend his mother-in-law's funeral in Florida. Melania Trump's mother, Amalija Knavs, died last week.
“Donald Trump attended the first day of his civil defamation trial, watching as a jury was selected to determine how much, if any, damages the former president must pay E. Jean Carroll for her defamatory statements in 2019 about Carroll's sexual assault allegations.” CNN reported.
“I am asking you, sir, now for a one-day adjournment of this trial” on Thursday to “allow my clients to be there so that they can be present every day of this trial as they are entitled to.” Habba told the courtroom.
“I'm not stopping it from being there,” Kaplan replied.
“No, you are preventing him from being here, Your Honor,” clarified the lawyer.
“The discussion is over,” Kaplan said.
According to Politico reporter Erica Orden, it was a “VERY difficult exchange” between the lawyer and the judge.
Habba: “I don't like being spoken to that way, Your Honor.” She continued to ask for an adjournment, at which point Kaplan cut her off again:
“He refuses. His.”
— erica orden (@eorden) January 17, 2024
“The application is denied,” Kaplan said. “I will hear no more arguments about it.”
“None. Do you understand that word?” he shot Habba after she tried to say something else. “Sit down.”
“I don't like being talked to that way, your honor,” Habba told the judge.
“He refuses. Sit down,” Kaplan said.
An attorney for Carroll previously told Habba in an email that “any delay would be seriously prejudicial” and that Trump was “almost certain to reassert the scheduling conflicts,” CBS News. reported.
At a campaign event ahead of the Iowa caucuses, Trump had lashed out at “animals” for denying a request to delay the trial.
“My wife's mother, who was incredible and so beautiful inside and out, an incredible woman, just passed away,” Trump told supporters in Indianola on Sunday.
“And my wife was pretty devastated about it. I have a trial going on, a totally bogus trial,” the former president continued. “And we asked the judge if he could take a day off for the funeral of my mother-in-law, who was also very close to me.”
“And he said, 'No.' These are animals. Can you imagine that?”
“I would like to support my wife as she attends the funeral of her mother, who is a very special woman,” Trump continued.
“Is she supposed to stay there by herself? No, no, I'll be there,” she said. “One way or another, I will be there. But what a shame a judge didn't say, “Yeah, we can take a day off.”
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