[ad_1]
Topline
Donald Trump took the stand briefly in his own defense at the defamation trial brought by writer E. Jean Carroll, telling the court he “wanted to defend myself, my family and frankly the presidency.”
The testimony comes after Trump was found liable for sexually abusing Carroll in May 2023.
Key Facts
Before taking the stand, Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled the former president would be restricted on what he can speak about in testimony.
Trump was not allowed to deny he sexually assaulted Carroll, which he continues to do on television and on social media, since he was found liable in a civil lawsuit last year.
Trump’s defense attorney Alina Habba said her client’s testimony would be “very brief,” but also said she could not be “100% sure” of what Trump would say, NBC News reported.
Habba asked the former president if he stood by the testimony in his deposition, and if he denied Carroll’s rape allegations to defend himself.
Trump answered yes to both questions and called Carroll’s accusation a “false accusation — totally false,” but Judge Kaplan ordered the jury to ignore the added comment.
Key Background
Carroll, a former columnist at Elle Magazine, accused then-President Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her in a dressing room at Manhattan department store Berdorf Goodman in the 1990s in an article she wrote for New York Magazine in 2019. Trump denied Carroll’s accusation, and Carroll responded by filing a defamation lawsuit later the same year. While the suit was delayed for years, Carroll sued trump again under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which allowed victims of sexual assault to hold their perpetrators liable after the original statute of limitations passed. Trump was eventually found liable for sexual abuse and defamation, but has continued to call Carroll’s story “fake.” The original suit was delayed for years during Trump’s presidency, and was delayed further this week after jurors reported being sick.
Big Number
$5 million. That’s the amount Trump has already been ordered to pay in damages after the first lawsuit from Carroll. Lawyers for the writer are asking Judge Kaplan for another $10 million in damages if he is found liable for defamation in this suit.
Further Reading
[ad_2]