New York Instances veteran correspondent Maggie Haberman on Thursday weighed in on former President Donald Trump’s court docket testimony within the defamation damages trial author E. Jean Carroll has introduced in opposition to him.
Trump has already been discovered answerable for defaming and sexually abusing Carroll, and the present trial is supposed to find out the quantity of damages he must pay consequently.
Trump, who took the stand for underneath 4 minutes on Thursday, mentioned he didn’t intend to wreck Carroll along with his statements in opposition to her, prompted by a query from his lawyer, Alina Habba.
“No. I simply needed to defend myself, my household and, frankly, the presidency,” he added, according to The New York Times.
Choose Lewis Kaplan instructed the jury to ignore every part after the phrase “no.”
All in all, Haberman mentioned, Trump was “managed, comparatively talking,” showing to heed repeated warnings concerning the seriousness of the case and the “no nonsense” strategy of Choose Kaplan.
“He’s at all times fairly good at determining the bounds of what he can get away with,” she mentioned of the previous president on CNN’s “AC360.”
The journalist mentioned that whereas Kaplan had repeatedly burdened to Habba that Trump’s testimony ought to solely give attention to the side of damages, Trump nonetheless managed to get within the issues he needed the jury to listen to.
“So I don’t assume he harm himself,” Haberman advised CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
Trump is predicted again in court docket on Friday.
Requested about why the previous president is intent on being current in Kaplan’s courtroom, Haberman mentioned it stems partly from the truth that Trump nonetheless regrets not testifying within the unique defamation trial, however it’s additionally an effort to rally his base as he continues his path to the GOP presidential nomination.
“He’s very large on management and he’s very large on believing that he’s his personal greatest defender, so I feel that’s an enormous cause,” she mentioned. “However does it have benefits? Completely, and the court docket circumstances have develop into indistinguishable from the marketing campaign path.”
You possibly can watch the entire phase under:
