The long-awaited moment when Donald Trump defends himself in E. Jean Carroll's defamation damages trial hit on Thursday.
The 77-year-old former president testified for less than three minutes after a Manhattan federal judge ordered him to be firmly restrained to limit what he could tell jurors about Carroll's claims.
Defense attorney Alina Haba was only allowed to ask a limited number of questions to Trump, and he was prohibited from digressing from the topic.
First, Haba asked Trump about a recorded testimony from 2022 in which he denied knowing Carroll, 80, who accused Trump of sexually assaulting her and defaming her reputation by calling her a liar.
“You saw the affidavit, right?” Hubba asked.
President Trump replied, “Yes, I did.”
“Do you support that?” the lawyer probed.
“One hundred percent. Yes,” he answered.
Haba then asked Trump if he was defending himself when he denied Carroll's sexual assault allegations in a public statement as president in 2019.
Trump replied, “Yes, I did.” “That’s exactly right. [Carroll] I made what I believe to be false allegations. ”
But Judge Lewis Kaplan quickly intervened and told the jury, “Yes, I did that,” to ignore everything President Trump said afterward.
Mr. Hubba then asked if he had intended to hurt Carol. The question appeared to be intended to defend the former Ask E. Gene advice columnist's claim that President Trump had “unleashed a believer” in Carroll.
“No, I just wanted to protect myself, my family, and frankly the office of the president,” Trump replied.
The judge intervened again, telling jurors to ignore everything in President Trump's statement after the word “no.”
Still, aside from two rants when jurors weren't present, including gasping “This is not America” as he left the courtroom, Trump was unusually calm during his brief stint on the witness stand. was.
The former president's muzzling was the product of an earlier ruling by a judge that barred Trump from denying at trial both that he committed sexual assault and that he did not know Carroll.
Kaplan said that in an earlier trial last May, another jury found Trump responsible for sexually abusing Carroll and defaming her with comments he made on Truth Social in 2022. , imposed this restriction after the company ordered him to pay $5 million in damages.
In the ongoing case, the judge also ruled that Trump defamed Carroll over comments he made in 2019, when he first came forward with allegations against Carroll.
That leaves jurors with the sole task of deciding how much Mr. Trump should be ordered to pay in damages to Mr. Carroll. She is seeking at least $10 million.
Carroll's attorney, Roberta Kaplan, asked the former commander-in-chief only one question during cross-examination: whether this was the first of Carroll's two trials attended by Trump. He answered, “Yes.”
Trump was asked a final question by Haba about whether the reason he didn't attend his first trial was because he was following the advice of his former lawyer, to which he also answered “yes.”
But after the jury went home, Trump seized the opportunity to acquiesce.
“This is not America,” he said, shaking his head as he staggered out of the courtroom in one of America's oldest court districts.
Just before Trump took the stand, as his lawyers and judges were negotiating whether he should be allowed to speak, the 2024 Republican presidential candidate tweeted out loud: I’ve never met this woman,” he said, clearly referring to Carol.
“Hold your voice, Mr. Trump,” Judge Kaplan said flatly, setting the tone for the subdued testimony that was about to begin.
Mr. Trump's testimony was in stark contrast to his testimony on the stand during his civil fraud trial in nearby Manhattan state court. There was no jury in the court, only a judge who would decide what punishment to impose on Trump and his real estate empire.
In this case, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron had to repeatedly tell President Trump to stop speaking, but the real estate mogul was still given far more leeway and was given much more time to testify. It was on the stand.
The case, in which New York Attorney General Letitia James sought $370 million from Trump, concluded in December, and Engoron said he hoped to reach a verdict by next Wednesday.
Meanwhile, jurors in the defamation damages case are scheduled to begin deliberations after closing arguments scheduled for Friday morning. Trump is also expected to attend.
Earlier Thursday, jurors heard from Carroll's final witness, her former boss and Elle magazine editor Roberta Meyers, who described Carroll as a “truth teller” and the magazine's top executive. He testified that he was one of the columnists.
The jury was also shown clips from a deposition recorded by President Trump in October 2022, in which he shared a photo of Carole taken when she was younger and a photo of his ex-wife, Marla Maples. Before the accidental confusion, Carol had claimed that she was not physically her type.
“I've seen her in pictures,” President Trump said of Carole on the Oct. 19, 2022 tape. “I don't know what she looked like, and she said it with all the respect she could, but she wasn't my type.”
Jurors in last year's trial were also shown portions of Trump's video testimony.
The only witness Mr. Haba called, other than Mr. Trump, was former television journalist Carol Martin. She was furious that Mr Carroll, her long-time friend, thought he was enjoying the attention he got from her by making her assault allegations public.
Trump appeared in court for the first two days of the trial last week, but missed one day to attend the funeral of his mother-in-law, Amalia Knabs.
He briefly reappeared in court on Monday before Judge Kaplan adjourned the trial for the day, citing a juror's illness and Mr. Hubba's “exposure” to the coronavirus. Trials were also halted on Tuesday and Wednesday, presumably for the same reason.
Carroll's attorney, Sean Crowley, told jurors in opening statements last week that Trump has denied ever knowing Carroll and said her accusations are false and has since sent hateful messages and death threats. President Trump told Carroll that she had “unleashed her followers.”
Crowley said Trump's usurpation of the presidency to discredit Carroll damaged her reputation as a journalist.
Meanwhile, in her opening remarks, Hubba claimed that Carol's life has improved since she gained international attention.
“Guys, she doesn't want her reputation to change. She likes the new brand,” Ms. Haba said at the time.
