'Could be a bit of a bloodbath': Trump warned testifying in defamation case could backfire
If Donald Trump decides to testify in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case it could end up being a "bloodbath" — but not in the way he thinks, a legal analyst said Tuesday.
The first day of Trump's trial concerning the lawsuit filed by the author begins Tuesday and, despite winning the Iowa Caucuses just hours before, he rushed to be in court instead of campaigning in New Hampshire.
The judge has already found Trump liable of defaming Carroll in remarks made in 2019, when he was president, mocking her sexual assault claim. The jury sitting this week is tasked with deciding how much money she should get.
In a separate trial last year, she was awarded $5 million after Trump was found liable of sexual assault and defamation. That ruling is being appealed.
Trump told the judge last week that he may want to testify in the final days of the trial, which may not happen until Monday of next week due to scheduling to accommodate his mother-in-law's funeral. But testifying may not be the best decision, legal analysts agree.
Like in many of Trump's cases, Andrew Weissmann expects Trump will lose big and appeal. The NYU law professor and former senior prosecutor for special counsel Robert Mueller was speaking on MSNBC.
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"In terms of the trial, if Donald Trump testifies, that will be next Monday. But then there will be summations that day," he said, speaking of closing statements. "I would expect the jury to come back very quickly. It is still not clear that Donald Trump will, in fact, testify because I think that would be a bit of a bloodbath in terms of what he could possibly say in his defense."
Carroll's lawyer can then cross-examine whatever Trump says with his defense attorneys. Judge Lewis Kaplan has already made it clear that he won't allow relitigating of the allegations in the case, which he said have already been decided in the earlier Carroll trial.
However, Trump isn't expected to try to defend himself in court, but try to use the trial as a stage to promote himself to the public.
Unlike in the business fraud trial that Trump spoke at in New York last week, Kaplan is a federal judge with higher standards for behavior. Trump could alienate himself to the jury and even be held in contempt of court.
"I would just point out that the initial trial was to a jury," said Weissmann. "That meant that a jury found him guilty, and in this case, because it was a type of defamation. Part of it required the standard of proof to be what is called clear and convincing evidence. So, this isn't a single judge who made a determination. It is civilians who sat and listened to the testimony.
"If you remember, Donald Trump didn't have the temerity to actually testify in that case, to even deny under oath that this happened, and the jury made a determination based on clear and convincing evidence that he had done this conduct."
Trump has continued to attack Carroll while sitting in court on his personal social media site.
See the discussion in the video below or at the link here.
'It could be a bit of a bloodbath' if Trump testifies: legal expert www.youtube.com