It wasn't just Donald Trump: His lawyers also had several disputes with Judge Lewis Kaplan, including asking Kaplan to recuse himself after the exchange over whether to remove the former president from the courtroom.
Trump attorney Michael Madaio cited “general hostility” toward Trump and his lawyers.
“Denied,” Kaplan said in response.
On Wednesday, Kaplan told Alina Habba to sit down after she tried once again to get Kaplan to postpone the trial on Thursday so Trump could attend his mother-in-law's funeral.
“I will not listen to any more arguments about it. None. Do you understand that word? None. Please sit down,” Kaplan said.
“I don't like being talked to that way,” Habba responded.
When Habba began his cross-examination of Carroll, the judge quickly intervened, admonishing the attorney for presenting an excerpt from Carroll's 2022 deposition when he did not have a copy or know which lines Habba wanted to read from.
“Look, Mrs. Habba,” Kaplan said as Habba began reading the transcript. “We're going to do it my way in this courtroom, and that's it.”
After Habba began reading harassing messages Carroll received in 2019, before the messages were introduced into evidence, Kaplan asked for a recess in the trial. “You should refresh his memory about how a document becomes evidence,” Kaplan told him after the jury left the courtroom.
Remember: Kaplan showed little patience for procedural errors by both sides, at one point telling Carroll's lawyer that they could not see the evidence in advance to look for possible censures. “When the document is authenticated and offered, that's when you say objection and that's when we address it,” Kaplan said.
