Donald Trump testifies in his defense in E. Jean Carroll defamation suit: ‘This is not America’

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan swiftly instructed jurors to disregard those remarks from Trump, who didn’t look at the jury when he approached the witness stand, when he testified or when he stepped down.

Once the jury had left, Trump let his displeasure be known as he was almost out the door by turning his head and shaking it as he looked back toward a packed room, saying: “This is not America. This is not America. This is not America.”

The limits on Trump's testimony were placed on him by the judge when he decided prior to the trial that a previous jury's finding that Trump had indeed sexually abused advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in spring 1996 in the dressing room of a luxury Manhattan department store and defamed her with remarks in 2022 must be accepted by the new jury.

That earlier jury awarded Carroll $5 million at a Manhattan trial Trump did not attend. The current judge instructed this jury to consider only what additional damages, if any, Trump must pay Carroll. Her lawyer had requested $10 million in compensatory damages and substantially more in punitive damages.

Closing arguments are set for Friday.

During his brief stint testifying Thursday as Carroll looked on with her lawyers, Trump answered questions from his lawyer, Alina Habba. She told the judge beforehand that her questions were intended to elicit that Trump stood by an October 2022 deposition in which he vehemently denied Carroll's claims and called her a “whack job” and “sick.”

She said she also wanted to show that Trump did not intend anyone to harm Carroll.

“She said something I considered a false accusation," Trump said from the stand. A lawyer for Carroll objected and the judge told jurors to disregard the remark.

Later, Trump said: “And I just wanted to defend myself, my family and frankly, the presidency." That, too, drew an objection and another instruction from the judge for the jury to disregard it.

Carroll claims Trump ruined her reputation after she accused him for the first time publicly in a memoir of sexually abusing her in spring 1996 in a Bergdorf Goodman store across the street from Trump Tower.

Trump, 77, has vehemently denied the accusations for the last five years and continues to assail Carroll, 80, on the campaign trail as he pursued the presidency as the Republican frontrunner.

U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in Manhattan has instructed jurors that they must accept the findings of another New York jury that awarded Carroll $5 million after concluding that Trump sexually abused Carroll at the Bergdorf Goodman store and defamed her in October 2022 statements. Trump did not attend that trial.

The trial that began last week and already featured testimony by Carroll focuses only on statements Trump made in June 2019 while he was president. Those claims had been delayed for four years by appeals.

Soon after the announcement by Trump attorney Alina Habba out of the presence of the jury, Trump could be heard saying aloud: "I never met the woman. I don't know who the woman is. I wasn't at the trial."

That comment prompted Kaplan to respond: “I'm sorry Mr. Trump. You're interrupting these proceedings. ... That is not permitted.”

Habba told the Manhattan federal court judge that Trump was her last witness after a lunch break and that she only planned to ask him three questions to elicit that he was addressing questions in 2019 in response to Carroll's claims in a memoir that he raped her and that and that he did not intend his statements to harm Carroll.

“I want to know everything he's going to say,” Kaplan told Habba, who said Trump would also say that he stood by a deposition in October 2022.

Kaplan reminded lawyers of the limits he has placed on Trump's testimony, including that he not be permitted to testify in a way that conflicts with or argues against a $5 million jury verdict last year that found Trump sexually assaulted Carroll in a Manhattan luxury department store dressing room in spring 1996 and then defamed her in 2022.

Carroll is seeking over $10 million in defamation damages for his comments after she accused him of sexual assault.

Trump's lawyers began his defense Thursday with the expectation that he'd be called as a witness to fight the lawsuit.

Trump's testimony was announced after Carroll's lawyers finished the presentation of their case by showing jurors video clips of the Republican front-runner in this year's presidential race saying at a Jan. 17 campaign rally that Carroll's claims were a “made-up, fabricated story” and a 2022 deposition deriding her as “a liar and a very sick person.”

The trial that began last week is the penalty phase of a defamation lawsuit over statements Trump made while president in 2019, when he claimed Carroll was lying to sell books and interfere politically.

Kaplan has instructed jurors to accept the findings of another jury that last May concluded Trump has sexually abused Carroll in 1996 and defamed her with statements in October 2022 similar to those he made in 2019. That jury awarded Carroll $5 million.

Kaplan said last year’s verdict means the current jury only needs to decide how much more money, if any, Trump owes Carroll for his 2019 statements.

Kaplan had ruled weeks ago that if Trump testified, he would be barred from testifying about subjects that would conflict with last year’s verdict. He will not, for instance, be permitted to Carroll made up her sexual assault claims or that she was motivated by her book deal or for political reasons.

Trump, 77, attended the trial two of three days last week and let the jury know — through muttered comments and gestures like shaking his head — that he was disgusted with the case against him.

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