Former Superior Court Judge Andrew Napolitano told Newsmax on Friday that Judge Lewis Kaplan abused his judicial power when he limited former President Donald Trump's testimony in the E. Jean Carroll defamation damages trial.
"It was a letdown just to see him on the stand for three minutes," Napolitano said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America" of Trump's taking the stand in his own defense. "It's an extraordinary abuse of judicial power to limit the testimony of the defendant when so much is at stake, when he wants to get up there and tell the jury has version of events. However, this is an odd situation that we're in.
"Remember, he has already been found guilty of a sexual assault against this woman and not guilty of a rape. It has already been determined that he did defame her, so the only issue before the jury is how was she harmed and how much should he pay her? Donald Trump, of course, got on the stand and said, 'I don't know this lady. I don't belong in the courtroom. I never met her and you need to know that I don't know her.'
"That's very fair for him to be able to say that but, in my opinion, he ought to have been able to elaborate on why he's in the courtroom, why this is a scam and why they shouldn't award her any damages against him."
Trump, 77, testified for about three minutes on Thursday to defend himself in the defamation lawsuit brought by Carroll, who alleged that the former president sexually assaulted her in a New York City department store dressing room in the 1990s.
Kaplan, who is presiding over the trial, and has already ruled that Trump defamed Carroll, severely restricted what he could tell the court, according to multiple reports.
Napolitano said the good news for Trump is that "this is a built-in appealable issue."
"If or when the jury puts a verdict against him, some astronomical number, like a previous jury did on the sexual assault case, you have a built-in issue on appeal," Napolitano said. "That issue is, to the appellate court, 'Judges, the trial judge wouldn't let my client speak to the jury.' That's a fundamental denial of due process."
Napolitano also commented on an interview Carroll gave to CNN in 2019, during which she discussed rape fantasies.
"I honestly don't know if the other jury saw that tape," Napolitano said. "They should have seen it because that really shows that this lady's got a number of screws loose, which is basically Trump's argument — she made the whole thing up, she's got sexual fantasies in her brain."
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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