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Former President Donald Trump wants a "visible and public battle with the courts" to show his supporters that he is battling the deep state, a legal expert said.
Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University, told Newsweek that Trump's goal in the ongoing E. Jean Carroll defamation case in New York, and other court cases, is to show his supporters that is fighting the establishment.
"Then when he predictably loses, he will claim he is the victim of the deep state," Gillers said. "For his core supporters, backing down is for losers."
In a trial last May, Trump was found liable for sexual assault and defamation of Carroll, a former Elle writer. The jury found that he sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York in the 1990s and then defamed her character in 2022 by claiming the assault never happened because Carroll "wasn't my type." Trump was ordered to pay Carroll $5 million in damages.
She is suing again for comments he made in 2019, when she first launched her sexual assault claim against him. Trump claimed that Carroll was "trying to sell a new book" and suggested she might be a Democratic operative. Carroll is seeking at least $10 million in damages.
On January 17, Judge Lewis Kaplan threatened to remove Trump from the courtroom after he repeatedly made comments about Carroll and the case. Kaplan also suggested that Trump wanted to be thrown out because it would be good publicity. Trump responded that he did want to be removed from the case.
Gillers said that another of Trump's goals is to delay his civil and criminal cases until after the 2024 presidential election, for which he is the front-runner for the Republican nomination.
"He may yet prevail there, at least partly," Gillers said. "If he wins in November, the federal cases will disappear and the state cases will be delayed until January of 2029. We'll know more in the next few weeks."
He added that Trump's defenses "are in large measure of the 'scorched earth' variety: concede nothing, challenge everything. I think this must be how he instructs his lawyers."
There were testy exchanges on January 17 between Trump and Kaplan after Carroll's lawyer heard him call the case a "witch hunt" and criticize his accuser's memory in front of the jury.
Erica Orden, a reporter with the news site Politico, wrote about the exchange in a series of posts to X, formerly Twitter.
"Kaplan threatened to kick Trump out of court after Carroll's counsel complained again about Trump's commentary. Kaplan: "Mr. Trump has the right to be present here. That right can be forfeited." He continued: "Mr. Trump, I hope I don't have to consider excluding you from the trial," Orden posted.
"After Trump threw his hands up in the air and said, "I would love it," Kaplan continued: "I know you would. I know you would. You just can't control yourself in this circumstance, apparently."
Newsweek reached out to Trump's campaign via email on Friday for comment.
Earlier in the day, Kaplan asked Trump to speak more quietly to his attorneys after one of Carroll's lawyers raised concerns about Trump speaking loudly in front of the jury.
"I'm just going to ask that Mr. Trump take special care to keep his voice down when he's conferring with counsel so that the jury does not overhear it," Kaplan said.
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About the writer
Sean O'Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. ... Read more