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11 months ago
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With just under five minutes of surprisingly reserved testimony from Donald Trump just now, the defense has rested its case in the defamation damages trial against the former president by E. Jean Carroll.
Taking the stand as promised, Trump was usually circumspect in his responses to his lawyer on Thursday. “No, I just wanted to defend myself, my family and frankly, the presidency,” the much indicted ex-president responded to attorney Alina Habba’s question of “did you ever instruct anyone to hurt Ms. Carroll in your statements” in 2019.
Earlier, with former Elle columnist Carroll sitting just a few feet away, Trump stated “Yes I did,” when asked by Habba if he thought Carroll’s sexual assault claims were false. “She said something that I considered a false accusation — totally false.”
Having put some pretty strict guardrails in place for Trump before the jury was brought back in to hear his testimony today, New York state Judge Lewis Kaplan immediately jumped in to tell the court that “everything after ‘yes I did’ is stricken.”
Before giving his testimony, Trump was clearly overheard to say in court: “I never met the woman … I do not know who this woman is” Leaving the courthouse today, the past and perhaps future president was heard to mumble “this is not America,” according to various media reports.
The Roberta Kaplan represented Carroll is seeking up to $12 million for the harm to her reputation, and “significant” punitive damages.
Closing arguments in the case are set to start tomorrow morning East Coast time.
Today’s anticlimactic courtroom events come two days after Trump’s big win in the New Hampshire primary and more than six months after the ex-Celebrity Apprentice host was found liable of sexual abuse and defamation. Back in May 2023, a jury of six men and six women awarded $2 million to Carroll for battery, and $3 million for defamation.
Writer Carroll has long claimed that Trump assaulted her in the mid-1990s in NYC department store Bergdorf Goodman. In office, our of office, in court and in front of the medial, Trump has always denied anything happened and that he even knew Carroll. Since 2019, Trump has put out some vile and harsh social media posts about Carroll to0. Those statements and posts have ruined Carroll’s reputation, her lawyers have claimed
Already found guilty of the incident in the department store change room nearly 30 years ago, Trump is in court in this case for attacking Carroll verbally when he was in the White House and subsequently. The leading candidate for the GOP 2024 presidential nomination, Trump has insisted time and time again since the jury found for Carroll last May.
Just after 11 am PT. CNN and MSNBC went live with the events in the courtroom and missives from their reporters inside. Fox News initially stayed with an interview with Sen. Ted Cruz over airplane safety and Boeing before going to correspondent Eric Shawn outside the Manhattan court. While the other cable newsers stuck with Trump coverage as the court adjourned for the day, Fox went to a segment on the Department of Education and revamped student loans forms.
