Raw Story: Trump and lawyer disagree if he is returning to ‘confront’ rape accuser.
Donald Trump on Thursday told reporters in Ireland he “has to” cut his trip short because he needs to “confront this woman” in court.
“This woman” is journalist E. Jean Carroll, who is suing the ex-president in a civil court case for rape and defamation.
“I’m going back to New York. I was falsely accused by this woman, I have no idea who she is – it’s ridiculous,” Trump said, according to the Irish Examiner. “I’ll be going back early because a woman made a claim that is totally false, it’s fake.”
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan for weeks had been trying to get Trump’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, to let the court know whether or not the ex-president would appear in court and whether or not he would testify….
“I have to go back,” Trump told reporters in Ireland, the New York Daily News adds, “and confront this woman.”
“I have to leave early,” he added. “I don’t have to but I choose to.”
But the Daily News adds, “Trump’s own defense lawyer Joe Tacopina confirmed the ex-president will not attend the civil rape trial, which is expected to wrap up early next week.” [….]
“It’s called false accusations against a rich guy,” Trump complained, “or in my case, against a famous, rich, and political person.”
Judge Kaplan decided to call Trump’s bluff and give him an opportunity to reverse his lawyer’s decision to end the defense case. He gave Trump until 5PM on Sunday to petition the court to allow him to testify. Yahoo News: Judge gives Trump until Sunday to change his mind about testifying in his rape and defamation
Lawyers for the prosecution and defense both rested their case Thursday in the rape and defamation lawsuit brought against former President Donald Trump by writer E. Jean Carroll, but testimony in the case may not yet be over.
Judge Lewis Kaplan said late Thursday that he would give Trump until 5 p.m. Sunday evening to change his mind about taking the witness stand in his own defense to rebut Carroll’s testimony that he raped her in a changing room in the Bergdorf Goodman department store in the mid-1990s and then lied about it. If Trump decides to testify, his lawyers must file a motion to reopen the case “for the sole purpose of testifying,” the judge said. Kaplan clarified that he will not necessarily grant the motion, simply that he would consider it.
In response to questions from the judge, Trump attorney Joe Tacopina said that he had communicated to his client that he had the right to appear in court and testify in the civil case, and that Trump had voluntarily waived that right. Tacopina told the judge he last spoke to Trump about this matter shortly before entering the courtroom earlier that morning.
But hours earlier, Trump spoke to members of the media at one of his golf courses in Ireland and indicated he was considering returning to the United States to participate in the trial….
If Trump’s lawyers fail to file a motion to reopen the case before the Sunday deadline, Kaplan said, “that ship has irrevocably sailed.”
And new today, the entire Trump deposition was released in a court filing, according to CNBC. See also this story on the deposition at the New York Times: In Rape Trial Deposition, Trump Says Vulgar Tape Simply Reflects Truth.
The latest on the documents investigation–there is now an insider witness! From the New York Times: Justice Dept. Intensifying Efforts to Determine if Trump Hid Documents.
Federal prosecutors investigating former President Donald J. Trump’s handling of classified documents have obtained the confidential cooperation of a person who has worked for him at Mar-a-Lago, part of an intensifying effort to determine whether Mr. Trump ordered boxes containing sensitive material moved out of a storage room there as the government sought to recover it last year, multiple people familiar with the inquiry said.
Through a wave of new subpoenas and grand jury testimony, the Justice Department is moving aggressively to develop a fuller picture of how the documents Mr. Trump took with him from the White House were stored, who had access to them, how the security camera system at Mar-a-Lago works and what Mr. Trump told aides and his lawyers about what material he had and where it was, the people said.
At the heart of the inquiry is whether Mr. Trump sought to hide some documents after the Justice Department issued a subpoena last May demanding their return.
The existence of an insider witness, whose identity has not been disclosed, could be a significant step in the investigation, which is being overseen by Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. The witness is said to have provided investigators with a picture of the storage room where the material had been held. Little else is known about what prosecutors might have learned from the witness or when the witness first began to provide information to the prosecutors.
But prosecutors appear to be trying to fill in some gaps in their knowledge about the movement of the boxes, created in part by their handling of another potentially key witness, Mr. Trump’s valet, Walt Nauta. Prosecutors believe Mr. Nauta has failed to provide them with a full and accurate account of his role in any movement of boxes containing the classified documents.
In the past few weeks, at least four more Mar-a-Lago employees have been subpoenaed, along with another person who had visibility into Mr. Trump’s thinking when he first returned material to the National Archives, according to people briefed on the matter. Two people said that nearly everyone who works at Mar-a-Lago has been subpoenaed, and that some who serve in fairly obscure jobs have been asked back by investigators.
Prosecutors have also issued several subpoenas to Mr. Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, seeking additional surveillance footage from Mar-a-Lago, his residence and private club in Florida, people with knowledge of the matter said. While the footage could shed light on the movement of the boxes, prosecutors have questioned a number of witnesses about gaps in the footage, one of the people said.
But hoping to understand why some of the footage from the storage camera appears to be missing or unavailable — and whether that was a technological issue or something else — the prosecutors subpoenaed the software company that handles all of the surveillance footage for the Trump Organization, including at Mar-a-Lago.
There are gaps in the surveilance footage!! That is a BFD.
Also in the NYT story is this little nugget:
One of the previously unreported subpoenas to the Trump Organization sought records pertaining to Mr. Trump’s dealings with a Saudi-backed professional golf venture known as LIV Golf, which is holding tournaments at some of Mr. Trump’s golf resorts.
It is unclear what bearing Mr. Trump’s relationship with LIV Golf has on the broader investigation, but it suggests that the prosecutors are examining certain elements of Mr. Trump’s family business.
Did Trump share any of the stolen documents with the Saudis in return for the golf deal?
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This insane person is the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.
THAT is the part which is the worst symptom of the prion disease.
“Prion disease.” Apt description!
(Charlie Pierce’s perfect description of the condition.)
The woman on the right is Ivanna, lol. He didn’t recognize her either.
The Thomases are skeazeballs and the world would be a better place without them. Trump needs to be put in a padded room with no ability to be on any kind of media. He’s a clear and present danger via his ugly militia freaks. I’m so tired of these people!
God. Are they ever. And as so many of us have said, if only there’d been some sign, an indication, any hint at all during Thomas’s confirmation hearings that he really wasn’t fit to be on the Supreme Court. ***cough*** Anita Hill ***cough***
Great post BB, I still think there is secret docs buried with Ivanka. That was a full size coffin hole for an urn size cremated person. Lol
I didn’t know she’d been cremated! And given how cheap the Dump is, no way he’d pay for a coffin any bigger than it had to be.
So, yeah. Exhumation time.