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: 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?
More on Substack here
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