“It’s clear Trump wanted to avoid the bloodbath of a cross-examination but wanted to say something”
Former President Donald Trump spent just three minutes on the witness stand Thursday in his defamation trial brought by E. Jean Carroll, using his testimony to declare that he backs his prior deposition denying the writer’s claims.
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As Trump left the courtroom, according to The Messenger’s Adam Klasfeld, he complained to the press in the gallery, saying, “It’s not America. It’s not America. This is not America.”
Habba’s mission is not to be a good lawyer within the rules and traditions of the courtroom. Habba’s mission is to drag the proceedings as much as possible out of the rules of the courtroom, and into the rules of “I’m the leader, do as I say or I’ll have you shot.”
A lawyer who’s staying within the rules of the courtroom is pretty much doomed to failure, and will interfere with mission #2 while they’re failing, which is why Trump hates them. Trump is so generally incompetent that it remains to be seen whether mission #2 will be successful. But Trump and Habba are in no way using bad strategy when they try mission #2, because it’s certainly possible to win that game, whereas mission #1 is a lost cause at this point.