Donald Trump storms out of court during closing arguments in damages trial
Donald Trump stormed out of a courtroom on Friday as closing arguments began in a damages trial in New York.
A jury found Trump liable last year of sexually abusing E Jean Carroll in a New York department store in the 1990s and defaming her after she wrote about the incident.
The current trial focuses only on what damages the former US president will have to pay for defaming Ms Carroll, 80.
Trump left as Ms Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan told jurors they should punish him for persistently lying about her client and destroying her reputation as a responsible journalist.
“We all have to follow the law,” Ms Kaplan said. “Donald Trump, however, acts as if these rules and laws just don’t apply to him.”
District Judge Lewis Kaplan, not related to Ms Carroll’s lawyer, said after Trump walked out: “The record will reflect that Mr Trump just rose and walked out of the courtroom.”
The former US president later returned to the courtroom when his lawyer Alina Habba began her closing argument.
The judge objected to Ms Habba twice in the early stages of her closing argument – first after she denied the sexual assault took place, and then when she claimed Ms Carroll’s account had “more holes than Swiss cheese”.
Ms Carroll is seeking at least $10m (£7.9m) in compensatory damages and an unspecified amount in punitive damages.
She is seeking the damages over Trump’s 2019 denials, when he was president, that he raped her in the mid-1990s in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan.
E Jean Carroll, dressed in blue, arrives at the Manhattan Federal Court on Friday. Pic: AP
Trump, 77, accused Ms Carroll of making up the encounter to boost sales of her memoir.
But a jury ordered Trump to pay Ms Carroll $5m (£3.95m) in May 2023 over a similar denial he made in October 2022, finding that the former US leader had sexually abused her and later defamed her.
Because that verdict is binding for the current trial, this jury only needs to decide how much Trump owes Ms Carroll for harming her reputation, and whether to impose punitive damages to keep him from defaming her again.
Trump has continued attacking Ms Carroll during the trial, proclaiming that her case was a “witch hunt” and a “con job” and maintaining that he had not known her in the mid-1990s.
“This trial is about getting him to stop, once and for all,” Ms Carroll’s lawyer said on Friday.
Trump, who is the clear favourite to be the Republican candidate in the US election later this year, has attended the entire trial except for opening statements, which he skipped for a presidential campaign event.
He is seeking to retake the White House in the November election in a likely showdown against Democrat Joe Biden, who beat him in 2020.
On Thursday, Trump spent only three minutes defending himself on the witness stand after Judge Kaplan forbade him and his lawyers from revisiting issues that the first trial had settled.
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Trump was allowed to stand by testimony he gave in October 2022, in which he called Ms Carroll’s claims a “hoax” and said she was “mentally sick.”
Jurors had earlier been shown video excerpts of the testimony.
Ms Carroll wrote the “Ask E. Jean” column for Elle from 1993 to 2019, and often appeared on such programs as NBC’s Today and ABC’s Good Morning America.
She said those appearances dried up after Trump called her a liar, and that his denials led her to be bombarded with online death threats and other attacks that have yet to stop.
Lawyers for Trump have said it was Ms Carroll’s accusations and not Trump’s denials that prompted the attacks, saying the attacks began even before the former president said anything.
The 2024 presidential race is expected to be close even though Trump faces 91 felony counts in four separate criminal indictments, including two cases accusing him of trying to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss.
Trump has tried to make his legal travails a campaign asset, claiming he is a victim of biased prosecutors, plaintiffs like Ms Carroll, and an unfair judicial system.
The United States and European Union have agreed a trade deal, says Donald Trump.
The announcement was made as the US president met European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen at one of his golf resorts in Scotland.
Speaking after talks in Turnberry, Mr Trump said the EU deal was the “biggest deal ever made” and it will be “great for cars”.
The US will impose 15% tariffs on EU goods into America, after Mr Trump had threatened a 30% levy.
He said there will be an EU investment of $600bn in the US, the bloc will buy $750bn in US energy and will also purchase US military equipment.
Mr Trump had earlier said the main sticking point was “fairness”, citing barriers to US exports of cars and agriculture.
He went into the talks demanding fairer trade with the 27-member EU and threatening steep tariffs to achieve that, while insisting the US will not go below 15% import taxes.
For months, Mr Trump has threatened most of the world with large tariffs in the hope of shrinking major US trade deficits with many key trading partners, including the EU.
Ms von der Leyen said the agreement would include 15% tariffs across the board, saying it would help rebalance trade between the two large trading partners.
In case there was no deal and the US had imposed 30% tariffs from 1 August, the EU has prepared counter-tariffs on €93bn (£81bn) of US goods.
Ahead of their meeting on Sunday, Ms von der Leyen described Mr Trump as a “tough negotiator and dealmaker”.
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At least 11 people have been stabbed at a Walmart supermarket in Michigan, with six in a critical condition.
Officials say a suspect is in custody – and at this stage, it is believed the attack was a “random act” that involved a folding-style knife near the checkout area.
Sheriff Michael Shea told reporters: “Eleven is 11 too many, but thank God it wasn’t more.”
Pic: AP
The suspect, who is from Michigan, is not known to police – and was captured within three minutes thanks to “citizen involvement”.
The attack unfolded in Traverse City – and Tiffany DeFell, who was in the car park at the time, described scenes of chaos.
“It was really scary. Me and my sister were just freaking out,” she said. “This is something you see out of the movies.”
Beyond the six people in a critical condition, it is believed the remaining five were seriously hurt. All 11 are still being treated in hospital.
Pic: AP
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said: “Our thoughts are with the victims and the community reeling from this brutal act of violence.”
A Walmart spokesperson added that the retailer is working closely with law enforcement.
“Violence like this is unacceptable. Our thoughts are with those who were injured and we’re thankful for the swift action of first responders,” a statement said.
Pic: AP
At this stage, the ages of the victims is unclear – but it is not thought any of the victims were Walmart employees.
Traverse City is about 255 miles northwest of Detroit.
A US passenger plane made a dramatic plunge minutes after take-off to dodge another aircraft – injuring two cabin crew and causing passengers to shoot out of their seats.
The Southwest flight had just taken off from Burbank in California when the pilot received an alert about a nearby plane.
Data from FlightAware shows the aircraft dropped by 91m (300ft) in just 36 seconds. Those on board said they felt panicked, and some feared the plane was about to crash.
Comedian Jimmy Dore posted on X: “Pilot had to dive aggressively to avoid mid-air collision … myself and plenty of people flew out of their seats and bumped heads on ceiling, a flight attendant needed medical attention.”
Stef Zambrano saw a woman who wasn’t wearing her seatbelt thrown out of her seat, who then said: “I want to get off this plane. I want to be on the ground.”
Another passenger, Steve Ulasewicz, told NBC Los Angeles that it felt like the plane was in freefall for 10 seconds.
“People were screaming. You know, it was pandemonium. People thought the plane was going down,” he added.
The aircraft was able to continue to its destination of Las Vegas, where it safely landed without any further incident.
It is believed the Boeing 737 was in the same vicinity as a Hawker Hunter Mk. 58, a British fighter jet.
Southwest is now working with the Federal Aviation Administration “to further understand the circumstances” of the event.
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This is the second time in a week that a passenger plane has had to make abrupt flight manoeuvres to avoid a potential mid-air collision.
Concerns have been raised about aviation safety in the US following a series of recent incidents.
In January, a mid-air collision in Washington DC killed 67 people.
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