Donald Trump testifies in his defense in E. Jean Carroll defamation suit

Donald Trump began testifying Thursday in a New York defamation trial to determine how much he might owe the advice columnist E. Jean Carroll for disparaging her as a liar after she publicly accused him of a decades-old rape in 2019.

“I just wanted to defend myself,” he said in testimony that lasted less than three minutes.

Carroll, who is seeking over $10 million in damages, was in the courtroom as Trump was sworn in as a witness in Manhattan federal court.

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 the dressing room of a Manhattan luxury department store.

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