Judge Kaplan Lets Alina Habba Change the Rules During Trial

Judge Lewis Kaplan allowed Trump's attorney, Alina Habba, to change the typical rules of the courtroom on Thursday after Habba introduced a new witness to the stand.

Kaplan agreed to let Habba declare Carol Martin, a longtime friend of columnist E. Jean Carroll, as a hostile witness on Thursday. Because Martin is being treated as an adverse witness—someone who testifies against the party that called them to testify—former President Donald Trump's defense team is allowed to ask her leading questions that are typically not allowed.

Former federal prosecutor and elected state attorney Michael McAuliffe told Newsweek that the court is allowed to designate a witness as hostile if an attorney in the case argues that the witness is expected to be uncooperative in questioning.

"That means the lawyer who called the witness can question the witness as if on cross-examination," McAuliffe explained. "The lawyer can use leading questions and can exercise more control over the question and answer exchanges."

The trial unfolding in Manhattan is deciding how much Trump will have to pay Carroll for defaming her. Carroll is seeking $10 million from Trump in compensatory damages over his denial of her sexual assault claims. A civil jury already found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in the dressing room of a department store in the mid-1990s and for defaming her for saying she fabricated the story.

Trump has continued to deny any wrongdoing.

Habba's co-counsel, Michael Madaio, clarified to Kaplan on Thursday that Martin, who had already testified in the first defamation trial on behalf of Carroll, was an "adverse party." Kaplan then allowed Habba to question the former anchorwoman as a hostile witness.

McAuliffe said it's not an unusual designation in a courtroom but one that comes with legal risk.

"It can backfire on a lawyer if it appears the lawyer is being a bully or unfairly preventing a witness from fully responding to a question," he said. "The designation also can mask the lawyer's general inability to control a witness using traditional measures such as asking direct, plain questions instead of making speeches."

Asked by Habba on Thursday whether she believes publicity to be part of Carroll's lifestyle, Martin told the court, "It is an extension of the lifestyle she already had."

Martin testified that she had been to approximately six of the parties that Carroll hosted in relation to her lawsuits against Trump. She said that she was "somewhat" frustrated by Carroll's celebratory nature but pointed to it being due to the "difference in our personalities."

In the first defamation trial, Martin recalled Carroll telling her about the sexual assault soon after it happened and that she had told Carroll not to go public "because it was Donald Trump and he had a lot of attorneys, and I thought he would bury her."

"I have questioned myself more times than not over the years," she testified in May. "I am not proud that that's what I told her in truth, but she didn't contest."

When asked by Habba on Thursday whether Carroll was "loving the adulation" from the Trump lawsuits, Martin said, "I think she is adapting. Enjoying is a multi-faceted word."