Former President Donald Trump’s attorney had a nasty exchange with a New York federal judge who snapped at her to “sit down” during the trial on a defamation lawsuit.
Alina Habba informed Judge Lewis Kaplan that she did not appreciate being spoken to in the rude manner he had addressed her but it did no good as the judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ordered her to take a seat.
The exchange occurred on the second day of proceedings in the defamation suit against the former president by 80-year-old columnist E. Jean Carroll. Trump’s lawyer was attempting to get the trial paused so he could attend the funeral of his mother-in-law in Florida. Melania Trump’s mother Amalija Knavs passed away 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 to E. Jean Carroll for his 2019 defamatory statements 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 he can be present for every day of this trial as he has a right to be,” Habba reportedly said in the courtroom.
“I am not stopping him from being there,” Kaplan replied.
“No, you’re stopping him from being here, Your Honor,” the attorney clarified.
“The argument is over,” Kaplan asserted.
According to Politico reporter Erica Orden, it was a “VERY testy exchange” between counsel and the judge.
Habba: “I don’t like to be spoken to that way, your honor.” She continued to ask for an adjournment, at which point Kaplan cut her off again:
“It’s denied. Sit down.”
— erica orden (@eorden) January 17, 2024
“The application is denied,” Kaplan said. “I will hear no further argument on it.”
“None. Do you understand that word?” he shot at Habba after she tried to say something further. “Sit down.”
“I don’t like to be spoken to that way, your honor,” Habba informed the judge.
“It’s denied. Sit down,” Kaplan snapped.
An attorney for Carroll previously told Habba in an email that “any delay would be severely prejudicial,” and that Trump was “near certain to assert scheduling conflicts again,” CBS News reported.
At a campaign event before the Iowa caucuses, Trump had raged at the “animals” for denying the request to delay the trial.
“My wife’s mother, who was incredible and a great beauty inside and out – incredible woman – she just died,” Trump told supporters in Indianola on Sunday.
“And my wife was pretty devastated by that. I have a trial going on, a totally fake trial,” the former president continued. “And we asked the judge if I could take a day off for a funeral for my mother-in-law, who was very close to me also.”
“And he said, ‘No.’ These are animals. Can you imagine that?”
“I’d like to support my wife who is going to be standing at a funeral of her mother, who is a very special woman,” Trump continued.
“Is she supposed to stand there alone? No, no, I’ll be there,” he said. “One way or the other, I’ll be there. But what a disgrace that a judge would not say, ‘Yes, we can take a day off.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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