'Everybody’s jaw just dropped': Analyst predicts what will likely 'impact' Carroll trial jurors

Ahead of closing arguments for writer E. Jean Carroll's defamation trial against Donald Trump set to begin Friday, January 26, legal analyst Lisa Rubin explained what happened inside of the courtroom Thursday as the former president unexpectedly testified.

"This is a day that I thought would really never come," Rubin told MSNBC host Alicia Menendez. "I have told you, and I have told MSNBC viewers for weeks that I never thought Donald Trump would stake the stand. And so for me, the moment traumatic moment was at 2:15 today when [Trump attorney] Alina Habba said 'the defense calls President Donald Trump,' and everybody's jaw just dropped. Because, collectively, I think there's a feeling that it was not only a mistake, but something we really didn't count on happening. When you talked about the three questions that Alina Habba was permitted to ask, we're going to have to see the transcript because the questions weren't stricken. In fact, only portions of the answers were struck in each case. And so we're going to have to see exactly what the Judge Kaplan allowed and didn't allow. My own recollection is Donald Trump is allowed to answer the second two questions in 'yes' or 'no' ways. Did you deny it because you wanted to defend yourself? 'Yes, I did.'

The analyst noted, "And then he continued to say it's totally false, and that's when Judge Kaplan cut him off. Similarly, he was asked 'did you instruct anyone to hurt her?' He said, 'no,' from my notes, 'I just wanted to protect myself, my family and the presidency.' That sentence was stricken. But I'm not sure that the 'no' was. But irrespective of that, there were just three questions. I would be curious to see whether that has any impact on this jury or not, particularly when, as you noted earlier in the afternoon, we were treated to an array of clips from Donald Trump's prior depositions, not only in this case, but also in the New York attorney general's deposition in the civil fraud trial that I have been following. And where we expect a decision either next week or shortly thereafter on Judge Arthur Engoron's own promise."

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Rubin emphasized, "In that deposition, Donald Trump talked extensively about his net worth, his brand value, the amount of cash that he has on hand, what each individual property might be worth if he sold it. And overall, his conclusion, which lingered with the jury and everyone present, was his self-profession that he's worth billions upon billions of dollars. And that has to make an impact with these jurors, who are going to be asked not only to assess what amount of money is due to E. Jean Carroll to compensate her for the harm to her reputation and the pain and suffering that she has gone through, but also, what amount of punitive damages should be awarded to punish Donald Trump for his conduct, for his failure to stop defaming her after the initial verdict, and instead to continue doing so in a Truth Social post — including as recently as this morning — and in a 30-plus post storm last night."

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READ MORE: Here’s what Trump said on the witness stand that Judge Kaplan struck from the record