FORMER US PRESIDENT Donald Trump has briefly testified in a defamation court case against him in New York, making several comments the judge had to tell the jury to disregard.
Writer E. Jean Carroll is seeking over $10 million in damages from Trump, claiming he defamed her after she accused him of sexually abusing her.
Trump was sworn in as a witness in federal court in New York City today but spoke for only three minutes.
Carroll made the accusation in a memoir, saying that he sexually abused her in 1996 in a dressing room in Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury department store in Manhattan.
Trump, who denies the accusations, has made multiple statements in recent years casting aspersions on Carroll’s character.
A previous New York jury awarded Carroll $5 million after finding that Trump sexually abused her at the store and then defamed her in October 2022 statements. Trump did not attend that trial.
The current ongoing case relates to comments he made about her in 2019 while he was president.
“She says something I considered false,” Trump said when he addressed the court.
A lawyer for Carroll objected and Kaplan told the jury to disregard the comment.
Trump subsequently said: “I just wanted to defend myself, my family and frankly, the presidency.”
That remark prompted another objection from the other side and a instruction from Kaplan for the jury to disregard it.
As Trump left the courtroom after his short stint testifying, he was heard saying, “This is not America”.
Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba tried to have the case thrown out on the basis that threatening messages against Carroll started on social media before Trump made the comments in question in 2019, but the request was denied.
Carroll has alleged Trump defamed her in 2019 when he said that she “is not my type.”
Jurors were shown Trump’s deposition in October 2022, at which time he confused a picture of Carroll for his former wife Marla Maples, to cast doubt over his claim Carroll was not his type.
Last week, when asked about Trump damaged her reputation, Carroll, quoting insults that Trump has made against her, said: “Previously, I was known simply as a journalist, and now I’m known as a liar, a fraud, and a whack job.”
The federal court in New York only has the power to impose a civil penalty in this case, rather than a criminal conviction.
Additional reporting by Press Association and AFP
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