Trump trial to hear closing statements in E Jean Carroll case after ex-president’s testimony: Live

Donald Trump testified on Thursday afternoon in his defamation trial in New York in the second case brought against him by writer E Jean Carroll.

The former president was under strict guidelines as to what he could say and answered only a handful of questions.

A previous jury has already found Mr Trump liable for sexually abusing Ms Carroll in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s and for subsequently defaming her.

Judge Lewis Kaplan reminded his lawyer Alina Habba that the former president was not allowed to argue against that on the stand — hence his short appearance in which the defandant appeared frustrated.

He continues to vigorously deny the allegations and, on Thursday night, unleashed yet another slew of attacks on Truth Social against the former Elle magazine columnist.

Mr Trump has meanwhile rejected a draft resolution submitted to the Republican National Committee to recognise him as the GOP’s “presumptive nominee” in the wake of hisvictory in the New Hampshire presidential primary on Tuesday over his last remaining opponent Nikki Haley.

The front-runner said it was in the best interests of “party unity” that he continue the primaries and win “the old fashioned way”.

Hours after firing off dozens of Truth Social posts attacking E Jean Carroll, Donald Trump appeared (briefly) on the witness stand on Thursday in a trial that will determine how much he owes her for defamation.

Before he was called to the stand, US district judge Lewis Kaplan instructed the former president’s attorney that she can only ask him whether he stands by his previous deposition testimony and if he has ever instructed anyone to hurt Carroll.

While the jury was out of the room, as the judge and attorneys discussed what he