New York Times correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman recently agreed that former President Donald Trump attempted to get kicked out of the defamation trial involving E. Jean Carroll, whom Trump sexually abused and defamed, to raise money from fans who “don’t know the difference” between trials that you have to show up for and those you don’t via Mediaite.
Trump’s court appearances over the past two weeks have been astounding. Trump was present at an appeals court session where his legal representative contended that a president might direct Seal Team Six to kill a political opponent without being prosecuted if he was first impeached and found guilty.
Subsequently, he participated in flamboyant court proceedings in the fraud case initiated by Attorney General Letitia James and overseen by Judge Arthur Engoron. He also embarrassed himself during the most recent trial for defaming E. Jean Carroll, whom a court has already found he sexually molested and defamed.
On this week’s edition of CNN’s King Charles, co-hosts Gayle King and Charles Barkley asked if Trump was trying to get kicked out of court, and Haberman agreed — noting Trump supporters may not realize he “chose to be there” when he fundraises off the grievance:
KING: So, you literally wrote the book on Trump. And today we saw he almost got kicked out of the courts today for his very disruptive behavior. He gave a speech attacking the judge. And then he goes outside and, of course, talks to the press. So, the way you look at it, do you think that the Trump trials or the new Trump rallies, we used to always cover the rallies, and now when he comes out of court, everybody covers what he has — well, not everybody, but he gets a lot of coverage when he comes out of the courtroom.
MAGGIE HABERMAN: pretty much. I mean, he has melded his legal cases and his political campaign, so they are indistinguishable. He fundraises off the legal cases. And this was a civil case. He didn’t have to be there today.
He chose to be there. This is not a criminal trial where he would have to be in court. But most of his supporters don’t know the difference. They don’t hear the difference. They just hear noise that he’s under fire, and they tune in that way, and they give him money that way.
And so he is really leaning into this because he has learned the lesson that there is a benefit to him politically.
KING: Well, today in court, he seemed to want to get kicked out of court. Can you talk about what happened in court today?
HABERMAN: Sure. So, he went to court —
KING: He seems to deliberately taunt the judge.
HABERMAN: It seemed very much like that to me. This was, again, the civil trial involving E. Jean Carroll, this New York writer who accused him of rape decades ago. And he was already found liable for sexual abuse and defamation in a previous case related to her that she brought.
In this case, he showed up for her testimony. And so instead of us talking about her testimony, we are talking about the fact that he was making noises. He was over her whispering to his lawyer. The judge, Lou Kaplan, who is a very serious judge, he’s been on the bench a very long time, and it’s a federal court, it’s not the same as a state court where things tend to be a little looser.
This judge gave him warnings and said at one point, something to the effect of, I know you want to get thrown out and I’m not going to do that, and Trump responded, I would love that. And I suspect, Gayle, that that is true. He would have liked to have gotten thrown out because he would then claim he was a victim. It’s heads he wins, tails, the other side loses.
