Donald Trump Jury 'Going to Destroy Him'—Attorney

A legal expert has said Donald Trump and his lawyer Alina Habba have made his legal position "even worse" in his defamation trial in New York.

Tristan Snell said on January 25 that Trump denying rape allegations in court meant he was setting himself up for punishment from Judge Lewis Kaplan.

"Donald Trump and Alina Habba did the seemingly impossible today — they made Trump's position in the E. Jean Carroll case EVEN WORSE," Snell said on X. "For Trump to continue denying the rape, when the judge told him he couldn't, shows he TOTALLY lacks contrition... The jury is going to DESTROY him."

Habba is representing Trump in court in a defamation case brought by former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll.

A jury ruled last year that Trump had sexually assaulted and defamed Carroll. This trial is to determine the total in damages against him.

Trump says he "never met, saw, or touched" Carroll and has denied sexually assaulting her at a Bergdorf Goodman department store in the 1990s in New York.

Despite this, Kaplan ordered Trump cannot say he did not make statements in 2019 "with actual malice," or that Carroll lied about being sexually assaulted because of the previous trial.

On January 26, Kaplan told Habba she was on the "verge of spending some time in the lockup after she contested a ruling.

Trump—not obliged to attend the trial—walked out of the courtroom after Roberta Kaplan began her closing argument.

The New York Post reported the disagreement was over Kaplan not allowing Habba to use a particular slide in her closing argument.

Newsweek has approached a Trump spokesperson and Habba's law firm via email for comment.

Snell, vocally anti-Trump, said he believes Trump and Habba caused themselves problems as yesterday saw Trump on the witness stand for around three minutes.

Trump interrupted Kaplan to say he had "never met this woman," before Habba asked Trump if he rejected the claims against him.

The former president said: "She said something I thought it was a false accusation."

Carroll's lawyer Roberta Kaplan, no relation, objected to this and it was struck from the record.

The decision to testify in the trial was slammed by some legal experts including Snell, but others suggested it did not end too badly for the judge.

Former federal prosecutor Harry Litman said on X that "Trump wanted to avoid the bloodbath of a cross-examination but wanted to say something." Litman added this is "what worked out" but also that it was "hardly helpful."

Kaplan "handled Trump well," Litman added.

Trump critic and former U.S. attorney Joyce Vance said the Trump testimony went "better than expected."

"Trump seemed determined to testify," Vance wrote on her Civil Discourse Substack page. "From his lawyers' point of view, it probably went better than expected. Trump did not rant, rave, or explode on the witness stand."