Trump lawyer complains 'it's insanely prejudicial' the E. Jean Carroll trial won't stop for his mother-in-law's funeral

• Alina Habba got into an argument with the judge in E. Jean Carroll's defamation trial Wednesday.
• The Trump lawyer asked to delay the case so the ex-president could go to his mother-in-law's funeral.

Donald Trump's attorney Alina Habba got into a testy exchange with the judge presiding over the former president's defamation case Wednesday, expressing visible frustration that the trial wouldn't be delayed for the funeral of his wife's mother.

"I think it's insanely prejudicial," Habba told US District Judge Lewis Kaplan Wednesday morning.

Trump, Habba argued, shouldn't have to choose between attending the trial in downtown Manhattan — where a jury will decide how much in damages to award E. Jean Carroll after Trump falsely denied sexually abusing her and called her a liar — and his mother-in-law's funeral in Florida on Thursday.

The judge once again denied the delay.

Under longstanding Supreme Court precedent, Kaplan said, Trump has a legal right to be represented at his trial either personally, or by lawyers standing in for him. In earlier rulings, Kaplan noted that Trump's attorneys waited until the last minute to ask to delay the case.

"I will hear no more argument on it," Kaplan said. "None. Do you understand that word? Sit down."

Habba fired back.

"I don't like being spoken to that way," she said. "I'm not going to speak to you that way. I am asking for an adjournment for a funeral."

"All right. It's denied," the judge responded. "Sit down."

The trial, which began Tuesday, is focused on two statements Trump made defaming Carroll in 2019. Carroll previously took Trump to trial last year, where a jury found him liable for sexually abusing her and defaming her in a different set of statements.

Trump didn't attend a single day of that trial, held in the same courtroom.

Melania Trump's mother, Amalija Knavs, died on January 9. Three days later, Habba asked for a one-week delay of the trial.

Carroll's lawyers objected to a delay, noting that Trump had a campaign event scheduled in New Hampshire that week and was "near certain to assert scheduling conflicts again." They also noted that jurors had already received summons to the courthouse and travel arrangements were made for witnesses.

Kaplan opted not to delay the trial but said Trump would be allowed to testify on Monday if he wouldn't make it to court on Thursday, the day of the funeral. (The trial doesn't sit on Friday.)

On Tuesday, before jury selection began, Habba once again asked for a delay.

"We are asking, again, your honor, for a brief one-day adjournment so my client can be here, just like he flew at the wee hours of the night to be here today," she said.

Kaplan corrected Habba. It was the first time, he said, that she had asked for just one day's adjournment. Previously, she asked for a week.

When Habba argued back, Kaplan stopped her.

"The repetition is not accomplishing anything," he said.