MANHATTAN (CN) — Former President Donald Trump took the witness stand for no more than three minutes Thursday afternoon, briefly testifying in his own defense in the second defamation trial brought by magazine writer E. Jean Carroll.
“The defense calls President Donald Trump,” his attorney Alina Habba said shortly after 2:00 p.m. Thursday, the fifth day of Carroll’s civil defamation trial.
The former “Celebrity Apprentice” host and current front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination answered just three narrowly tailored questions from Habba in their case against Carroll’s civil defamation claims.
“Mr. President, you viewed your deposition which was explained by plaintiff's counsel at length during the trial,” Habba said. “Do you stand by your testimony deposition?”
“One hundred percent — yes,” the former president said enthusiastically.
“Did you deny the allegation because Ms. Carroll made an accusation,” Habba asked Trump.
“Yes, I did, that's exactly right,” Trump replied. “She said something I considered a false accusation,” he began to explain before Judge Kaplan cut him off and struck the latter half of the reply from the record.
Responding to Habba’s final question if he ever instructed anybody to hurt E. Jean Carroll, Trump said he had not.
“I just wanted to defend myself, my family, and frankly, the presidency,” he said before he was again interrupted by the judge, who struck the response from the record.
As he exited the courtroom, Trump muttered “This is not America” three times as he passed reporters seated in the gallery.
Earlier in the day without jurors present, Trump interrupted his own lawyers while they were speaking to Judge Kaplan and blurted out: "I wasn't at the trial. I don't know who this woman is. I never met this woman."
Kaplan instructed Trump’s attorneys that he was not to stray from specific guidelines of what his testimony could be because there was “cause for concern” that Trump would make statements on the stand that introduced jurors to inadmissible evidence.
Kaplan remarked that the doctrine of collateral estoppel “prevents do-overs by disappointed litigants.”
Since the judge has already found Trump liable on Carroll’s defamation claims in pretrial summary judgment, the jury will only determine much he owes her in damages.
Because Trump chose to not attend Carroll’s first rape and defamation trial, Judge Kaplan instructed Trump’s lawyers that he cannot offer any evidence “disputing or tending to undermine” determinations of fact from the first trial, where a jury concluded Trump had sexually assaulted Carroll and later defamed her with his denial statements.
Carroll’s cross-examination by attorney Roberta Kaplan was as brief and anticlimactic as the defense's direct questioning.
"Is this the first trial between you and Ms. Carroll that you have attended,” Kaplan asked.
“Yes,” Trump answered.
“No further questions, your honor,” Carroll’s attorney said.
Closing arguments will be held Friday morning.
Carroll, whose long-running "Ask E. Jean" advice column appeared in Elle magazine from 1993 through 2019, says Trump raped her in early 1996 in a fitting room at New York City’s famed Bergdorf Goodman department store, after the two recognized each other and Trump asked her to help him pick out a gift for a woman.
Trump’s public denials of Carroll’s account, first made public in an excerpt of her 2019 book “What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal,” published in New York Magazine’s The Cut, prompted the civil defamation lawsuit by Carroll later that year, in which she claimed her professional reputation and opportunities had been destroyed by Trump’s smear campaign and online harassment from his followers.
In ruling against Trump on summary judgment, Kaplan found the then-president acted with actual malice in making a series of false statements about Carroll when she came forward with her accusations.
The nine-person jury heard evidence pertaining to $10 million in compensatory damages and millions more in punitive damages requested by Carroll.
Carroll’s attorneys rested their case in chief shortly before noon Thursday, after calling former Elle magazine editor-in-chief Roberta Myers to the stand. Myers testified about Carroll’s integrity as a journalist and popularity as a columnist.
Following Myers’ short testimony, Carroll’s attorneys entered a series of videos into evidence including chunks of Trump’s deposition videos recorded in April 2023 and October 2022.
The first video played was Trump at a press conference held at his 40 Wall Street building in lower Manhattan last week after a trial day, in which in he repeats his denials of Carroll’s accusations and refers to her as a “person I never knew, I never had anything to do with. Totally rigged deal.”
Carroll’s attorneys also played jurors video of Trump’s 2023 deposition, beginning with his boasts about the value of the Trump brand.
"We have a lot of cash. We have great assets. And we have a very valuable company,” he says in the deposition video. "I think it's the hottest brand in the world.”
In another deposition video, Trump repeated earlier remarks that he never met Carroll and that she was not even his “type” of woman to pursue.
““I saw her in a picture…and I say it with as much respect as I can, she’s not my type," he told attorney Roberta Kaplan in the deposition video. “Physically she’s not my type. She wouldn’t be my type in any way, shape, or form.”
Unlike Trump’s frequent appearances in nearby state court for his civil business fraud trial last fall, Manhattan federal court bars the use of cameras or recording equipment inside the courtroom building, so the former president and current Republican presidential candidate is not able to speak directly to the media right outside of the courtroom during breaks during Carroll’s trial.
Trump, 77, continues to deny having ever met Carroll or sexually assaulting her. He insists a 1987 photo of them together with their respective spouses at a "Saturday Night Live" party doesn’t qualify as proof of having met her because it was a fleeting moment during an event.
In a portion of an October 2022 deposition shown to jurors, Trump examined the 1987 photo and mistakenly identified Carroll as his blonde ex-wife, Marla Maples.
Trump, the first former U.S. president to be indicted, faces 91 criminal counts across four states and federal jurisdictions — in Georgia, Florida, New York and the District of Columbia — even as racked up early primary wins in Iowa and New Hampshire.
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