He testified for under three minutes. But former President Donald Trump still broke a judge’s rules on what he could tell a jury about writer E. Jean Carroll’s sexual assault and defamation allegations, and he left the courtroom Thursday bristling to the spectators: “This is not America.”

Testifying in his own defense in the defamation trial, Trump didn’t look at the jury during his short, heavily negotiated stint on the witness stand. Because of the complex legal context of the case, the judge limited his lawyers to asking a handful of short questions, each of which could be answered yes or no — such as whether he’d made his negative statements in response to an accusation and didn’t intend anyone to harm Carroll.

But Trump nudged past those limits.

  • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Pretty sure the deal is that the judge’s main job is to ensure that the conduct of the trial follows the file of law. If it can be shown that he didn’t do that, anyone can call for a mistrial. But I’m a software engineer, not anyone who has any training in this stuff.