E. Jean Carroll will return to the witness stand this morning to resume her cross-examination -- this time without Donald Trump in the courtroom.

After attending the first two days of the trial, Trump will be absent today to attend the funeral of former first lady Melania Trump's mother, Amalija Knavs, who died last week after a long health battle.

During yesterday's proceedings, Judge Lewis Kaplan, for a third time, denied a request from Trump's legal team to pause the trial so Trump could attend the funeral.

"We would have assumed that for a trial like this, it's not an emergency in terms of timing, the judge would have been very nice, and they would let me go because I want to be at every trial day," Trump told reporters after court yesterday, calling Kaplan a "radical Trump hater."

Trump's attorney Alina Habba told Judge Kaplan she intends to question Carroll for less than an hour today, after which Carroll's lawyers plan to call to the stand an expert on reputational harm, as well as Robbie Myers, the former editor of the magazine where Carroll worked as an advice columnist.

E. Jean Carroll conceded on cross-examination that she anticipated "blowback" would follow the publication of her rape allegation against then-President Trump, and that she did not shy away from publicity that she now says has shattered her reputation.

"You've continued to publicize every lawsuit you had against President Trump?" defense attorney Alina Habba asked.

"Yes," Carroll responded. "Because I wanted people to know that a woman can speak up and win a trial. I wanted people to know. I'm 80. I don't want to be quiet. It's not right to make a woman be quiet. It has gone on for too long."

The defense has been trying to portray Carroll as an attention-loving woman who is overplaying her emotional accounts of how the backlash following her rape accusation affected her.

Carroll also said under questioning that she hosted watch parties in her lawyer's office that were attended by comedian Kathy Griffin and Trump's niece Mary Trump, both of whom are critics of the former president.

"Isn't Kathy Griffin known for holding up a severed head of President Trump?" Habba asked.

"Yes," Carroll said.

Court subsequently adjourned for the day, with Carroll scheduled to return to the witness stand on Thursday for additional cross-examination.

In the middle of E. Jean Carroll's cross-examination, former President Trump's defense attorney Alina Habba sought a mistrial, which the judge promptly denied.

Habba was questioning Carroll about threatening emails she said she received. Carroll said she deleted many of those messages because "I didn't know how to handle death threats. I thought deleting them was the easiest way to get them out of my life."

When Carroll said she had deleted some messages around the time of her earlier trial involving Trump, Habba asked for a mistrial, saying, "The witness has just admitted to deleting evidence herself."

Judge Kaplan immediately denied the request and said, "The jury will disregard everything Ms. Habba just said."

Habba also questioned whether Carroll received disparaging messages after publishing her account of the sexual assault at Bergdorf Goodman, but before Trump issued his denial.

"Some of the slime happened before the president issued his statement?" Habba asked.

"No," Carroll responded. "Because they were reacting to the White House statement."

Asked how she knew, Carroll said, "Because of the wording," prompting Habba to say, "So a denial from the White House would mean that any statement echoing it would be President Trump's fault?"

The direct examination of E. Jean Carroll ended with her telling the jury she would "never get used to attacks" like the ones she has continued to endure from former President Trump and his followers.

"Was he posting about you as recently as yesterday? Carroll's attorney Roberta Kaplan asked regarding Trump.

"That's what I've been told," Carroll answered before she was shown a Truth Social post from Tuesday, during the lunch break, in which Trump called the trial a "fake case from a woman I've never met, seen or touched."

The cross-examination of Carroll began on a discordant note when defense attorney Alina Habba tried to confront Carroll with some of her testimony from an earlier deposition.

There was a dispute over whether Habba had properly told the judge which part of the deposition she intended to introduce.

"We're going to do it my way, Ms. Habba," Judge Kaplan said.

"Sure," Habba replied, abandoning that line of questioning.