Lawrence: Trump becomes first former President to testify as a defendant in his own trial

The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell

Lawrence O'Donnell, MS NOW

Politics, Washington, Congress, News, Ms Now, President, Versant Media, Policy, Versant, Government, Senate

4.5 • 6.4K Ratings

🗓️ 26 January 2024

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tonight on The Last Word: Donald Trump testifies in the E. Jean Carroll defamation suit. Also, the Biden-Harris campaign focuses on battleground Wisconsin. Plus, Brian Klaas says Trump benefits from “the banality of crazy.” And a new film reimagines Isabel Wilkerson’s book, “Caste.” Andrew Weissmann, Faith Gay, Ben Wikler, and Ava DuVernay also join Lawrence O’Donnell.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Well, by the time Donald Trump took the witness stand today in the case of E. Jean Carroll versus
0:06.5	Donald Trump, the questions his lawyer would be allowed to ask him were already worked
0:11.5	out in detail in discussions with the judge and the
0:14.8	lawyers on both sides of the case while the jury was out of the courtroom.
0:19.1	Judge Lewis Kaplan instructed Donald Trump's defense lawyers once again that Donald Trump
0:24.6	would not be allowed in his testimony to contest the fact that he raped E. Jean Carroll
0:30.4	in the department store in Manhattan.
0:32.2	Judge Kaplan told the lawyers that the jury in the previous E. Jean Carroll lawsuit
0:37.6	in the same courtroom found that Donald Trump did in fact sexually assault E. Jean Carroll and that was not an issue
0:45.3	before this jury whose duty is solely to decide how much in money damages Donald
0:50.4	Trump should pay E. Jean Carroll.
0:52.6	Judge Kaplan told the Trump lawyers,
0:55.3	the jury will be instructed that regardless of what he says in court here today,
1:01.0	he did it as far as they're concerned. That is the law. Donald Trump's
1:07.0	lawyer, Alina Haba, then told the judge she only wanted to ask three questions.
1:12.0	One, does Donald Trump stand by the testimony he gave in
1:15.3	his deposition? Two, why did he deny attacking E. Jean Carroll? And three, did he tell
1:21.9	anyone to harm E. Jean Carroll?
1:25.0	After lengthy discussions, the judge said that the Trump lawyer could ask the first question and the third question, but not the second question.
1:33.0	The question that the judge ruled out was,
1:36.0	why did you deny sexually assaulting Eugene Carroll?
1:40.0	With the ground rule set, the judge brought the jury into the courtroom and now that we have the transcript at this late hour, we finally know what was said.
	...

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