'Not bluffing': Expert says Trump was 'eager to testify' before defamation trial postponed

There was debate over the weekend about whether Donald Trump would testify in his E. Jean Carroll damages trial on Monday — with many legal experts discussing the disaster that could unfold.

As it turned out, an ill juror forced a last-minute pause for a day, but the short morning of activity was enough for MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin to admit she was wrong. She had assumed Trump was not going to testify — but what she saw in court Monday morning convinced her he was ready to go.

"Trump was definitely ready and eager to testify. What makes me say that?" she wrote on social media. "As the press assembled in our assigned rows of the courtroom this morning, one of the court marshals ejected a slim, curly-haired woman from a bench on the other side of the courtroom. Many of us gasped because that woman was Trump criminal defense lawyer Susan Necheles."

She said that Necheles came back in the courtroom, but with former Southern District of New York prosecutor Todd Blanche, who is representing Trump in his criminal cases.

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"Yes, Necheles and Blanche could have been there for reasons other than Trump’s expected testimony," Rubin said with emphasis. "They showed up for opening arguments in last May’s Carroll trial, for example, accompanied by jury consultant Josh Dubin."

But, she said, nobody had expected Necheles and Blanche would be there Monday.

"So, my guess is that Necheles and Blanche were, in fact, there to see Trump testify," she closed. "And that’s the best sign to date that he was not bluffing, as I and so many others predicted. Watch this space."

Other than Trump, there are still two more witnesses expected to be questioned.