The former president flew into New York City one day after winning the Iowa caucus.
One day after former President Donald Trump won the Iowa caucus, he was inside a Manhattan courtroom Tuesday, where a jury will decide how much his defamatory remarks about writer E. Jean Carroll will cost him.
Last May, Trump was found liable for sexually abusing and defaming the writer after she accused him of assaulting her at Bergdorf Goodman in the late 90s.
The former president continued denying her claims and mocked her. “I have no idea who the hell, she’s a whackjob,” Trump said at a CNN town hall in May 2023.
Now a jury will determine if Carroll is entitled to more damages strictly for defamation.
The potential jurors were asked if they thought the 2020 election had been stolen from Trump. Out of the 80 people in the jury pool, two said yes, which grabbed Trump’s attention as he spun around in his chair to look at them.
Trump did not have to be present in the courtroom Tuesday. He flew into New York City Monday night and after court is headed to New Hampshire, where he faces Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley in the state’s primary next week.
CBS senior White House and political correspondent Ed O’Keefe says it’s all a calculated strategy.
“He is absolutely using these court cases to his political advantage. They see it in the fundraising, they see it in the comments the voters make,” O’Keefe tells Inside Edition. “It’s worked brilliantly for him in Iowa and they suspect it will again in New Hampshire and beyond.”
In video from the weekend, Trump appears fatigued and seemed to have been dragging his leg as he walked.
“Anyone who has to spend time in the cold Iowa weather would look rundown,” O’Keefe says. “By all accounts his aides tell us that he is invigorated by this, he is angry, he is seeking retribution, and he’s getting it in courtrooms and in caucus rooms.”
