Jury selection is underway in
the trial
to determine how much money Donald Trump
will have to pay in damages to Jean Carol.
Back with me
now, CNN chief legal affairs
correspondent Paul Reed.
And joining us, CNN legal
analyst and former federal prosecutor
Jennifer Rogers.
Paul,
I want to start with you
with what we've seen
in this courtroom already today with
was this tense exchange
between Trump attorney Elaine Harbor
and the judge here.
Who is she and what role is she playing in this?
So she has a dual role. Eleanor Harbor.
She is Trump's attorney on the record.
She's going to try this case on his behalf.
She also worked on the New York civil case,
she said last week.
But she's also his spokeswoman
and you can see her really working in
both of those roles today by once again
engaging the judge on this issue of
whether the case should move
all together or just be off for one day
because Trump's mother in law has passed away
and there a funeral on Thursday.
Now, they previously asked if the whole case
could be pushed back because of this funeral
that was denied.
So it's a bit of a surprise
when she brought it up again today,
because usually
if federal judges give you an answer, that's it.
You don't like it.
Take it to the court of appeals
when the case is over.
But she brought it up today
and modified her request.
She said instead.
And we just got out of court on Thursday
so we can attend the funeral.
The judge didn't seem to like that
she was bringing this up again,
reminded her that she already got an answer
and said, no,
he doesn't have any need to be there every day.
He doesn't have a role.
And if he wants to testify,
he can do so on Monday.
But you can see that as the spokeswoman,
she's trying to frame this larger argument
that he's being treated unfairly
because the average person
is going to come home and say what he hear.
He can't attend the funeral
or he can't attend that trial.
They don't understand that.
He doesn't have to be here.
The last time
they had a trial on this for weeks and weeks,
he didn't show up for a single day.
They're trying to amplify this martyr
narrative, which is what we see
Elina Harbor doing.
And I know people may be sick of her saying this,
but it's a campaign stop.
It's he is there the day after
winning the Iowa caucuses.
He doesn't have to be there.
This is his first stop
on the campaign trail after winning Iowa.
And it's for a reason which you just laid out
right there.
Jennifer Rogers
There are legal issues in this case.
Donald Trump claims that he wants to testify.
The judge has made clear,
doesn't think that's a great idea.
And if so, it would have to be extraordinarily
limited. How so?
What does all this mean?
So there was a previous trial
on a different defamatory statement,
but it it resolved with a jury
some of the issues
that would have otherwise been at issue here,
like whether there was a sexual assault
or whether Trump actually assaulted her,
whether he defamed her when he denied doing so.
Those issues are now off the table.
Those are resolved.
So the only thing at issue here is the damages
for this second defamatory statement.
And for that reason,
if Trump decides he wants to testify,
he will be limited to issues related to damages.
Now, that can include his state of mind
when he defamed her.
But he cannot say,
I didn't defame her
because I thought my denials were true.
He cannot say I didn't sexually assault her.
So how he would want to dance around that to me
is a really tough question
for the judge to handle it.
So I think
all in all,
he probably actually will not testify because
it's just too much of trying
to dodge those bullets.
And frankly,
he won't be able to say the things
that he will want to say, e.g., Carol
says she will testify.
What do we expect there and describe?
You know, we were talking about how
this is a campaign subplot,
a campaign stop for her.
I mean, this is
this is something you know,
she has accused him of sexual assault.
She accused him of rape.
And this is something
she has been processing for years.
So she is going to be able to talk
about how how all of this impacted her.
Right.
Her damages
from this statement,
this defamatory statement in 2019.
What happened to her after that,
how she suffered, how she lost money,
how her career went into a tailspin,
all because he was calling her a liar
and the threats that she went through,
all of the things that she went through.
That's going to be the focus
of her testimony here
as she asks the jury for both
compensatory damages
to pay her back for all of that.
And punitive damages to punish Donald Trump
for what he did with Donald Trump
have to pay here in any time soon?
Well,
yes, I do think that there will be damages here,
because we just saw a very similar statement
resulting in a $5 million overall award to her.
I believe approximate 3 million of that
was for damages related to the defamation.
So I do expect that he'll have to pay.
Will she get her money?
Likely, but maybe not for a long time.
And we also have to see how his conduct, too,
could influence the jury
on some of these larger questions.
Talk to me about that.
Sure. Yeah.
So we were just and he said wise
sort of wisely lays out,
you know, the risks here.
He really has to stay in a pretty narrow lane
if he wants to take the stand.
But he had those same guardrails last week
in civil court here in New York.
He still decided to address the court,
but could not for the life of him stay within
the guidelines that he was given by the judge.
Now, that judge knew what was coming,
let him talk for a little bit,
then admonished his lawyers and cut him off.
This is federal court.
This is different.
The judge has already put them on notice
about about any sort of effort
to improperly participate in this case.
I mean, there is certainly a chance
that there could be a bigger blowback.
I'm not saying
he's going to be dragged out of court,
but even if he is
even if that leaves a bad impression on the jury,
does that not amplify the larger message
that they are trying to send here,
which is that he is being treated unfairly?
And we also don't have cameras in the courtroom.
We have our great colleagues in there
giving us minute by minute updates.
But a lot of the message is getting out
probably through his social media posts
and then any press conference
where he can spin it any way he wants.
So it's going to be really fascinating to see
how he handles this federal courtroom
is completely different.
And again,
this is his first time showing up for this case.
And it's a good point.
We are waiting for our next update
from inside that courtroom Paula.
Jennifer Rogers, thank you both very much.