An attorney for ex-President Donald Trump finished her cross-examination of E. Jean Carroll, the columnist who alleges Mr. Trump raped her in 1996, on Thursday while the GOP front-runner attended his mother-in-law’s funeral in Florida instead of watching testimony in New York.
Mr. Trump is crisscrossing the East Coast to balance the funeral, courtroom drama in Manhattan and campaign rallies in New Hampshire ahead of a key GOP primary on Tuesday.
He was in Palm Beach, Florida, on Thursday to memorialize Amalija Knavs, who is the mother of former first lady Melania Trump, while his attorney painted Ms. Carroll as a publicity seeker who tried to inflate her status with a 2019 claim that Mr. Trump assaulted her in a department store decades ago.
Defense lawyer Alina Habba tried to show a federal jury in Manhattan that Ms. Carroll has achieved the fame, if not the fortune, she desired after linking herself to Mr. Trump.
Ms. Carroll responded: “No, my status was lowered. I’m partaking in this trial to bring my own reputation and status back.”
Ms. Habba also confronted Ms. Carroll with a series of mean tweets that Trump supporters sent her after reading excerpts of her book in a magazine article in June 2019 in which she revealed her claims that Mr. Trump raped her.
The lawyer was trying to show jurors that social media posts that Ms. Carroll blamed on statements by Mr. Trump were being sent before his statements were released.
“Regardless of a few mean tweets, Ms. Carroll is now more famous than she has ever been in her life, and loved and respected by many, which was her goal,” Ms. Habba told jurors.
Nine jurors are considering whether Ms. Carroll is entitled to new damages because of comments Mr. Trump made as president in 2019.
A previous jury awarded her $5 million after finding Mr. Trump liable for sex abuse and defamation claims related to her claims and the former president’s comments from 2022.
The court said the liability finding from the first trial would carry over to the second trial, so jurors need only determine how much Mr. Trump must pay.
Ms. Carroll has testified that her life changed dramatically after Mr. Trump branded her a liar, claimed he never met her and asserted that she made her claims against him to promote her book and damage him politically. She said she lives in fear, sleeps with a loaded gun beside her and wishes she could boost her security but doesn’t have enough money.
Northwestern University professor Ashlee Humphreys, an expert called by Ms. Carroll’s lawyers, testified that Mr. Trump’s 2019 statements had caused between $7.2 million and $12.1 million in harm to Ms. Carroll’s reputation after they were seen or heard about up 104 million times through social, print and broadcast media.
Her estimates were based on what she said it would cost to repair Ms. Carroll’s reputation.
The trial is occurring days after Mr. Trump romped to victory in the Iowa caucuses and before New Hampshire primary voters have their say.
Mr. Trump, writing on Truth Social, said he would return to the Granite State for “big Rallies over the weekend.”
“Staying through Election Night, but today will be devoted to the funeral (Celebration!!!) of a GREAT WOMAN, ‘Babi,’ the Beloved Mother of Melania and Grandmother of Barron — And what a Woman she was!!!” he wrote.
It is unclear if Mr. Trump will leave New Hampshire to testify in the civil trial on Monday, as his team suggested earlier.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan denied Ms. Habba’s requests to suspend the trial on Thursday so Mr. Trump would not miss court action.
Knavs, 78, died on Jan. 9 after an undisclosed illness. Mr. Trump and his family attended the funeral at The Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea, which is not far from Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
“In her presence, the world seemed to shimmer with radiance and joy,” Melania Trump said during a eulogy. “Our bond was unbreakable.”
Though not able to attend court, Mr. Trump lashed out at Ms. Carroll on his social media channel early Thursday.
“I’ve said it once & I’ll say it again, a thousand times. Until this ridiculous Hoax was revealed to me by the Fake News Media, I never heard of E. Jean Carroll, never had anything to do with her, never would want to have anything to do with her,” he wrote, adding he never brought her into a changing room in a New York department store.
Mr. Trump and Judge Kaplan clashed Wednesday after the former president’s verbal reactions to Ms. Carroll’s testimony could be heard throughout the courtroom — and possibly the jury.
Judge Kaplan said he would have to consider booting Mr. Trump from the courtroom if he persisted.
• This story is based in part on wire service reports.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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