With Trump Not In Court Tales of Emulators Cut By Objections Sustained, Reputation Woes

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by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack

LITERARY SDNY, Jan 18 – Now that Trump wasn't in the courtroom, some air went out of the balloon. Still on Worth Street photographers waited in the freezing cold, for the entrances and hours later, the exits.

E. Jean Carroll had a security man, smaller than G. Maxwell's and SBF's, but crisp and to the point. Do not obstruct us, he'd say, as photographers and journalists holding their phones in the air were pushed back into a metal barricade. They call it news.  

Up in the courtroom, the cross of Carroll sputtered to its end. 

Habba: You posted, The most dangerous woman is the woman who has nothing to lose - and this reply calls you a lying sack of sh*t - that was before the President's statement was posted, right? 

Carroll: Right.   

Habba: They would not have been able to speak to you if you were not on Twitter at that time? 

Carroll's lawyer: Objection 

Judge Kaplan: Sustained. It is stricken.  Habba: How about this one from "Rodeo Clown"?  

Habba: Is Rodeo Clown replying to you?  

Judge Kaplan: Do you have many more of these?

...Habba: I can't ask about them? With all due respect-  

Judge Kaplan: With. All. Due. Respect - when I rule, you go on.

Habba: So do you- 

Carroll's lawyer: Objection. 

Judge Kaplan: Sustained. Stricken. 

Habba: On what basis?  Judge Kaplan: Move on.   

Habba: Wouldn't you agree that negative tweets are not necessarily tied to the President's statement? 

Carroll: They follow Donald Trump. They want to emulate him. 

Habba: Why do you believe that? How can they emulate if they were before? 

Carroll: They are standing up for the man they admire. 

Judge Kaplan: Ms. Habba, move on   

Yes, Move On. And so it went. Online legal experts, longstanding and just-for-today, trashed Habba's performance. Kurt Wheelock idly wondered, could Habba sue for these comments? But who had sparked them? Whom did they serve?

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