Trump denies Carroll's sexual abuse claims as defamation trial nears end
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[January 26, 2024]
By Jonathan Stempel and Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Donald Trump's testimony in the writer E. Jean
Carroll's defamation case ended almost immediately after it began, with
the former U.S. president standing by his earlier testimony that
Carroll's claim that he raped her was a hoax.
"100% yes," Trump told his lawyer Alina Habba in federal court in
Manhattan, when asked if his comments in an October 2022 deposition in
Carroll's case were accurate.
Earlier on Thursday, Carroll's lawyers played videotaped excerpts from
the deposition, in which Trump called the former Elle magazine advice
columnist "mentally sick" and a "whack job," and threatened to sue her.
"It's a false accusation, never happened, never would happen," Trump
said in the deposition.
Carroll, 80, is seeking at least $10 million over Trump's June 2019
denials, when he was president, that he had raped her in the mid-1990s
in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan.
Trump, 77, accused Carroll of making up the rape to boost sales of her
memoir.
Last May, another jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $5 million over a
similar denial in October 2022. He is appealing.
Trump spent only four minutes on the witness stand after U.S. District
Judge Lewis Kaplan, who has overseen both trials, said he would not
allow "do-overs by disappointed litigants" and let Trump revisit the
first jury's findings.
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That jury concluded that Trump defamed Carroll, and sexually abused her
by inserting his fingers in her vagina, and Kaplan said those findings
were binding in the current trial.
Carroll's case has become part of Trump's campaign to retake the White
House in the November election.
The Republican frontrunner has been shuttling between the courtroom and
campaign stops while criticizing Carroll, the judge and the judicial
process online and at press conferences.
'YOU ARE INTERRUPTING THESE PROCEEDINGS'
Kaplan struck most of what Trump said on the witness stand from the
record, meaning the seven-man, two-woman jury cannot consider it during
deliberations.
Trump testified "yes I did" when Habba asked if he had publicly denied
Carroll's rape claim to defend himself, and "no" when asked if he had
intended to harm Carroll.
He then said he had "wanted to defend myself, my family, and frankly the
presidency," but the judge instructed jurors to disregard this comment.
The trial has lasted four days, and closing arguments are expected on
Friday.
Before Trump took the stand, Kaplan and lawyers for both sides discussed
outside the jury's presence what the former president could say, when
the judge overheard Trump talking about Carroll and the first trial,
which he did not attend.
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![](../images/012624PIX/news_u2.jpg)
Former U.S. President Donald Trump watches footage of himself giving
a video deposition during the second civil trial where Carroll
accused former U.S. President Donald Trump of raping her decades
ago, at Manhattan Federal Court in New York City, U.S., January 25,
2024 in this courtroom sketch. REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2024/Jan/26/images/ads/current/zionpulaski_lda_EDUCATION_2024.png)
"I wasn't at the trial," Trump said. "I don't know who this woman
is. I never met this woman."
Kaplan, who is known for maintaining tight control over his
courtroom, cut him off. "I'm sorry, Mr. Trump, you are interrupting
these proceedings by talking loudly," the judge said.
Jurors will consider only how much money Trump should pay Carroll
for damaging her reputation, and perhaps additional sums as
punishment and to stop him from defaming her again.
To win, Carroll must prove her case by a preponderance of the
evidence, meaning more likely than not.
CARROLL'S FRIEND TESTIFIES
A damages expert testified on Carroll's behalf last week that the
reputational damage from Trump's 2019 comments could be as high as
$12.1 million.
Trump's legal team has said Carroll's damages should be nominal or
zero, and that Carroll sought out and has enjoyed the adulation from
coming forward.
They have also said it was the publication of excerpts from
Carroll's book in New York magazine, and not Trump's comments, that
led people to brand Carroll a liar.
Carol Martin, a former New York TV news anchor and a close friend of
Carroll, was the only other defense witness, with Habba trying to
establish how Carroll enjoyed her newfound fame.
Martin acknowledged having sent texts, after Carroll first accused
Trump of rape, that described Carroll as being like "Santa at a
Christmas parade" and "like a drug addict and the drug is herself,"
but said she regretted using hyperbole.
"She is adapting to the change in her life," Martin said.
"'Enjoying' is a multifaceted word."
Martin had testified on Carroll's behalf at last year's trial. Under
questioning from one of Carroll's lawyers, Martin said she had no
qualms about the writer's motives.
"What she always wanted was to have her day in court," Martin said.
Earlier on Thursday, Carroll's lawyers finished presenting their
case, with former Elle Editor-in-Chief Robbie Myers testifying that
she had viewed Carroll as a "truth-teller" whose empathy and sense
of humor made her "so important" to the Elle brand.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by
Noeleen Walder and Jonathan Oatis)
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