The former president is baiting the judge to take punitive action, which Trump can then use to portray Carroll’s case as rigged against him.
Has Donald Trump changed his mind about blowing off the federal civil trial in which he’s accused of raping and defaming E. Jean Carroll? Maybe.
From the golf course in Ireland, Trump went on a tirade earlier today against both the plaintiff and the presiding judge, Lewis Kaplan. Mediaite has the video. Trump told the assembled media and supporters that he “probably” would “choose” to head to New York to “confront” Carroll.
The former president elaborated: “I have to go back for a woman that made a false accusation about me,” adding, “I think it’s a disgrace that it’s allowed to happen — false accusations against a rich guy, or in my case against a famous, rich, and political person” — who, he hastened to add, was “40 points” ahead in the polls (a reference to his current commanding lead over Florida governor Ron DeSantis and others in opinion polls related to the Republican 2024 nomination race). Trump was emphatic that Carroll is a “disgrace” and that Judge Kaplan “is extremely hostile” to him.
It is unclear how all of this is going to work, or even if Trump is serious about coming to court. He said both that he would “probably” go to the trial and that he felt he “has to” go, but he didn’t plant his feet. Nevertheless, his lawyer, Joe Tacopina, did seem to plant his client’s feet in court yesterday, telling Judge Kaplan that there would be no witnesses called by the defense. That was after announcing, on a deadline from Kaplan to state the defense’s intentions, that Trump would neither be attending the trial nor testifying.
Of course, none of that necessarily means that Kaplan would bar Trump from testifying if he did show up. Indeed, with Trump trying to portray the judge and the proceedings as rigged against him, Kaplan would have a strong incentive to overlook the fact that Trump’s sudden decision could delay the trial: Carroll is about to rest her case, which means that if Trump wanted to testify, he should be in court . . . now.
But the point is, Trump is not in court — he’s in Europe.
Moreover, his lawyer, who is in court and is relied on by the judge for communications with Trump, is clearly not in control of his client. It’s not just that Tacopina represented that Trump would not be appearing; he also promised Kaplan that he would inform Trump of the court’s admonition that it is “entirely inappropriate” for him to make public statements about a case that is currently on trial before a jury. Trump, after all, is the defendant in the case. He could easily have come to court, confronted Carroll as he says he now wants to do, and spoken in person to the jury — which, unlike him, is required to come to court every day, even when doing so is inconvenient. Of course, were Trump to speak to the jury in court, it would have to be under oath and subject to cross-examination.
The last time Kaplan admonished Trump, through Tacopina, about making public statements, the context was the judge’s not-very-subtle suggestion that Trump could be held in contempt for trying to speak to the jury through the media, and that the judge could refer him to the Justice Department for an investigation of whether he’d obstructed justice.
Suffice it to say, then, that the judge is probably very angry right about now. Trump has defied him, and that puts Kaplan in the position of needing to do something about it. If he doesn’t, he’s a paper tiger who loses control of the case over which he’s presiding. But, if he does, he knows Trump will simply that add to his list of grievances about how the case has been rigged against him.
Kaplan, moreover, has been trying to keep the trains running on time, moving through the trial — and denying Trump’s requests that he postpone it — with the intention of wrapping it up next week. That’s what the jurors have been advised. To let Trump testify would require a delay because Trump has been playing golf overseas rather than attending the trial, and thus he is not in court today — the day everyone knew the defense case was supposed to proceed, if there was to be a defense case. If Kaplan delays the trial to accommodate Trump’s suddenly announced intention to participate, he’ll be rewarding the former president’s contemptuous conduct. If he declines to delay matter so Trump can testify, Trump will proclaim that this is proof positive of Kaplan’s deep bias against him, and hence of the trial’s fundamental unfairness.
Let’s accept, at least for purposes of discussion, that Trump truly believes that these sexual-assault and defamation claims by Carroll are complete fabrications (to say nothing of the two other alleged victim witnesses who’ve testified). Let’s also say he truly believes that the judge’s rulings in the case have been skewed against him. Even so, Trump’s outburst today is theater. This is a civil case. There are no surprises. Prior to trial, the parties take depositions, exchange witness lists, and disclose the evidence each side will present. Trump knew what Carroll and her witnesses were going to say, and he knew the Access Hollywood tape would be played for the jury. With Carroll about to rest her case, he’s now acting like the whole thing is a sudden shock to him, one that might suddenly induce him “probably” to drop what he’s doing and fly back thousands of miles to get to court.
Judge Kaplan will undoubtedly remind Joe Tacopina that his client always knew exactly what was going to happen here. Kaplan knows he is being baited. We’ll see how he handles it.