Trump might as well have been defending himself.
That was the sentiment offered by his former attorney Timothy Parlatore during an interview with Kaitlan Collins on CNN's "The Source" after a jury in New York federal court took three hours to award an $83.3 million sum in favor of the former president's sexual assault accuser E. Jean Carroll.
"From my perspective, I would regret having her represent him," he said. "I think in both these trials, he was essentially undefended."
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The criticism lands squarely on Trump's attorney Alina Habba, who picked it up after white shoe attorney Joe Tacopina withdrew.
What transpired at trial and often before the jury was a series of flops in breaking from basic legal precedent when it came to introducing evidence to flouting Judge Lewis Kaplan's directives and orders that resulted in rebuke after rebuke.
Parlatore, who bowed out after defending the former President Donald Trump in his federal criminal case for alleged hoarding classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, believes Trump was misrepresented.
"I think it could have turned out differently," he said.
Trump went on a crusade to protect himself while ridiculing Carroll in public after she published a magazine story in 2019 accusing him of violating her sexually inside of Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in Manhattan back in the 1990s.
Kaplan barred him and essentially Habba from arguing that he did not defame or sexually assault Carroll or that she invented it.
They continued to try to plead this case throughout and were shut down by the judge.
Last May, another jury ordered Trump to pay the columnist $5 million and defaming her in his denial.
Trump was a no-show in that trial.
He's appealing that verdict and vowed to appeal today's as well.
In fairness to Habba, because Trump lost the first trial, the second was a goner, Parlatore said.
"Unfortunately because of the way the first trial went, I don't think anybody could have won the second trial."
"I think that once the issues were set up from the first trial, the second trial was a loser from the beginning. the question is how big of a loser?"
