Former President Donald Trump took the witness stand in a defamation trial in New York City on Thursday and briefly defended claims he has made about E. Jean Carroll, a writer who accused him in 2019 of raping her three decades ago.
Trump was on the witness stand for just three minutes. He testified that “100% yes” he stood by his prior deposition in the case, and he said he publicly denied Carroll’s allegations against him because he wanted to defend himself, according to Politico.
Just before the former president took the stand, Judge Lewis Kaplan had narrowed the scope of his testimony, saying Trump could only speak about his deposition and what his state of mind was when he made public claims about Carroll. Kaplan also reminded Trump’s attorney Alina Habba that Trump had already been found liable for sexual abuse and defamation in a prior trial with Carroll and that he could therefore not deny those accusations from the stand.
Trump had added after one of his responses that Carroll “said something [he] considered a false accusation,” but Kaplan struck that comment.
Trump also made side remarks before and after he took the stand.
“It’s not America. This is not America,” Trump lamented aloud as he exited the courtroom, according to multiple reports from the scene.
The former president’s much-anticipated testimony came after a jury found last year that Trump sexually assaulted and defamed Carroll, and awarded her $5 million in damages. The same jury also determined that Trump did not rape her, as Carroll had alleged.
This second trial is focused on damages for additional remarks Trump made about Carroll when he was president, which Kaplan found were similar in nature to the statements the previous jury already deemed defamatory. Carroll is seeking a minimum of $10 million in damages.
Carroll alleged in a memoir in 2019 that Trump raped her three decades ago during a minutes-long encounter at a department store in Manhattan.
Trump vehemently denied the claim and accused Carroll of fabricating the story to help her book sales.
“I’ve never met this person in my life,” Trump said in a statement at the time. “She is trying to sell a new book — that should indicate her motivation. It should be sold in the fiction section.”
Trump has since repeatedly rejected Carroll’s claim. In one viral remark, he said that Carroll was not his “type.”
“Number one, she’s not my type. Number two, it never happened. It never happened, OK?” Trump said.
Carroll alleged in her original complaint that Trump knew her, that he recognized her at the time of the alleged incident, and that they both ran in the “same highly publicized New York City media circles.” She shared a photo from 1987 of the pair socializing among a group of four at a party.
Carroll also said that she remained completely silent about the alleged incident for nearly 30 years, aside from telling two friends about it right after it happened. She claimed she was inspired after the #MeToo movement took hold in 2017 to come forward with her claim, which she did through her memoir in summer 2019.
Carroll later testified that she was at a party with prominent anti-Trump figures that year, after her book came out, when the idea for the lawsuit was born. She said the gathering took place at the liberal writer Molly Jong-Fast’s house and that George Conway, a high-profile lawyer and Trump critic, convinced her there to file the lawsuit against Trump for rape and defamation.
She filed the suit two days later.
Trump has not remained quiet about Carroll despite being found liable for defaming her. He went on a tirade as recently as Wednesday about her in a string of social media posts.
The former president shared a number of past quotes from Carroll, a longtime Elle magazine columnist, in which she encouraged women to behave seductively and gave advice about sex. Trump also shared an interview in which Carroll said her newfound fame since suing Trump has been “fabulous.”
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“The truth is that she doesn’t know the day, month, season, year, or decade – because it did not happen. End this Witch Hunt now!” Trump wrote in another post.
Carroll said in her initial complaint that the alleged incident happened either in late 1995 or early 1996. She said it happened on a Thursday night but that she does not remember the exact date.