Trump's lawyers aim to win over the nine-member jury by showing the judge is "biased" against them.
Former federal prosecutor Lisa Rubin appearing on MSNBC's "All In" with Chris Hayes has attended the second trial against the former president by the 80-year-old writer E. Jean Carroll and believes the defense, led by Alina Habba, is deploying theatrics to convince others that Judge Lewis Kaplan is anti-Trump.
"I think Kaplan is in control of the courtroom," said Rubin, who was present in the gallery of the federal court in Lower Manhattan. "That having been said, Alina and her co-lawyers are definitely trying to suggest to the jury, even in their body language and their acceptance of defeat by him, that he is 100% biased against them, and not giving them a fair shake."
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"So when he shuts her down, she'll say things like 'Okay, sure!' as if to suggest there is something illegitimate about this, and you should be suspicious of It as well.'"
Carroll won $5 million following her first trial involving the claim that in the 1990s she was sexually assaulted by Trump inside of Bergdorf Goodman dressing room and that her reputation was defamed when he denied the allegations calling Carroll's claim a "con job" and "hoax."
The second trial is attempting to determine the dollar amount Carroll deserves for comments Trump made in 2019.
Rubin noted that Trump's legal team, who have been raked for failing to perform such remedial duties as lawyers such as enter evidence properly, has struggled to perform as competent trial attorneys.
She said "they kept circling the same wagons, they can't pivot, they are not nimble with the rules of evidence to understand how to move forward when they are blocked on a particular line of questioning."
