Alina Habba

A federal appeals court on Tuesday rejected Donald Trump's claim of presidential immunity in the defamation case brought by E. Jean Carroll, court records show.

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York also dismissed Trump's arguments that his 2019 statements against Carroll were not defamatory, the ruling shows.

At least two prospective jurors were admitted election deniers in Donald Trump's second defamation trial brought by writer E. Jean Carroll.

During the first day of jury selection on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan quizzed the prospective jurors about personal connections to Carroll or Trump.

Donald Trump's attempt to use his dead mother-in-law's funeral to postpone his $10 million defamation trial was slapped down Tuesday by a testy New York City judge, reports show.

"You asked me for a week's adjournment and I denied it," Judge Lewis Kaplan snapped at Trump's attorney Alina Habba, according to ABC News. "The repetition is not accomplishing anything."

Donald Trump will stand trial once again this week for defaming a woman he sexually abused, and a legal expert threw cold water on his last-minute attempt to delay the case.

The former president's attorneys filed a request Friday afternoon asking U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan to push back the start date so that Trump can attend his mother-in-law's funeral. The request was denied and the trial will begin as scheduled on Tuesday.

In a letter to Judge Lewis Kaplan on Sunday, attorney Alina Habba accused the legal team representing defamation victim E. Jean Carroll of trying to put up roadblocks for Donald Trump's defense in the trial scheduled to begin on Tuesday.

In the letter, posted to X by MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin, Habba contended that the move by Carroll's attorneys to keep the former president from lashing out in court as he did during closing arguments in his $370 million financial fraud trial last Thursday is hindering the former president's defense.

For all of his bluster and accusations at his $370 million financial fraud trial, at the end of the day the fact that Donald Trump "cooked the books" is what will end up costing him when Judge Arthur Engoron renders his final verdict regarding the Trump Organization.

That is the opinion of conservative lawyer George Conway who appeared on MSNBC's new "The Weekend" show featuring co-hosts Symone Sanders-Townsend, Michael Steele and Alicia Menendez.

Invited to address the closing arguments in the trial where Judge Engoron has already ruled the former president is guilty of fraud. Conway was asked what played out in the courtroom as the trial concluded.

"The New York case is interesting because, unlike the other, the four criminal cases, his freedom is not on the line here: his fortune is on the line and his businesses are on the line," he explained. "What the judge has already found based upon, frankly, undisputed evidence, is that he cooked the books. He cooked his own books and then he presented the books to lenders and insurers and so on and so forth."

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'His argument is, 'Well, they got all our money back, they weren't actually defrauded,' when the truth of the matter is, you cannot have fake books," he elaborated. "Even if you're a private company because people sometimes will have to rely on those books. And it's a privilege to do business either as a New York incorporated corporation or as a foreign corporation, out of state corporation, that has the right to do business in New York. That's a privilege and you can't abuse that privilege the law says, by cooking your books."

"Basically, his problem is he has no defense to the fact that he cooked the books and so, you know, that's why he has all this bluster," he added. "He can be put out of business, basically. The court has the power to basically revoke his ability, his corporate status."

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A former attorney for Donald Trump says the ex-president's legal campaign has been left rudderless — and he reserved special criticism for his most high-profile lawyer, Alina Habba.

Tim Parlatore, who represented Trump during the FBI raid of his Mar-a-Lago estate regarding storage of classified documents, was talking to CNN’s Laura Coates when he made the remarks.

After Donald Trump's legal team finished closing statements in the former president's $370 million civil fraud trial, their client took to the airwaves to address the public. CNN anchor Brianna Keilar tuned into the lengthy speech and told her viewers to get ready for an equally lengthy fact check.

"Brace yourself," Keilar said. "Because this is going to take a moment."

Former President Donald Trump's five-minute rant in his $370 million civil fraud trial Thursday wasn't curtailed by prosecutors because it was too good a chance to pass up, a legal analyst contends.

MSNBC's Lisa Rubin argues that Trump — accused by Attorney General Letitia James of defrauding lenders by inflating his assets — damaged his case when he addressed the New York City courtroom during closing arguments.

During closing arguments in Donald Trump's $370 million financial fraud civil trial, attorney Alina Habba was given a warning by Judge Arthur Engoron as she tried to impugn the reputation of New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Earlier Engoron had a back-and-forth with Trump attorney Chris Kise when the judge refused to allow the lawyer to claim his client is an "industry expert" in the real estate field, an exchange that CNN's Paula Reid speculated "likely got under Trump's skin."