E Jean Carroll lawyer warns Trump plans to turn damages trial into ‘circus’

Donald Trump’s legal woes continued to mount as a lawyer in an upcoming defamation case asked a judge to ensure the former president does not disrupt imminent legal proceedings – and, in a separate issue, he was ordered to pay nearly $400,000 in legal fees to the New York Times.

In the first of those two cases, a lawyer for E Jean Carroll – a columnist who last year won a $5m jury award against Trump for sexual abuse – urged a judge to take strong measures to ensure Trump does not “sow chaos” when a new jury considers next week if he owes even more in damages.

Trump said on Thursday that he would next week attend the Manhattan federal court trial, where a jury will consider a request by lawyers for Carroll that she be awarded $10m in compensatory damages and millions more in punitive damages for statements Trump has made.

“If Mr Trump appears at this trial, whether as a witness or otherwise, his recent statements and behavior strongly suggest that he will seek to sow chaos. Indeed, he may well perceive a benefit in seeking to poison these proceedings,” attorney Roberta Kaplan wrote in a letter to Judge Lewis A Kaplan.

“There are any number of reasons why Mr Trump might perceive a personal or political benefit from intentionally turning this trial into a circus,” said Roberta Kaplan, who has no relation to the judge.

She said she worried about “the possibility that he will seek to testify, and the associated risk that he will violate court orders if he does so”.

She recommended that Lewis Kaplan warn Trump of the possible consequences of violating court orders severely limiting what the former president and his lawyers can say at the trial.

A lawyer for Trump did not immediately return a message seeking comment from the