Author E. The judge reprimanded Trump twice during brief testimony in the Jean Carroll defamation case

Former President Donald Trump testified for just three minutes in a defamation trial in New York on Thursday to determine whether he defamed columnist E. How much Jean Carroll will have to pay in 2019 for defaming her by calling her a liar after she publicly accused him of raping her decades ago. back

“She said something that I consider a false accusation,” Trump said in testimony during a long-awaited but brief appearance. Carol’s lawyer objected and US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan asked jurors to ignore the comment.

“I just wanted to defend myself, my family and, frankly, the presidency,” Trump later said. It also prompted an objection and another instruction from the judge for the jury to ignore what the former president said.

At the end of his testimony, Trump left the courtroom shaking his head and repeating: “This is not the United States. This is not the United States. “This is not America.”

Kaplan instructed the jurors that he would accept the findings of another New York jury, which awarded Carroll $5 million after finding that Carroll had sexually assaulted and defamed her at a Bergdorf Goodman store in Manhattan.

Kaplan said last year’s ruling means the current jury only needs to decide how much more money Trump owes Carroll for her 2019 statements.

Trump did not attend the trial, which did not take place in the middle of the election campaign.

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

The columnist claims Trump tarnished her reputation after she first publicly accused him in a memoir of sexually abusing her in a luxury department store dress shop in the spring of 1996.

Trump, 77, has vehemently denied the allegations for the past five years and continues to attack Carroll, 80, at his presidential campaign events.

The trial, which began last week and has already shown Carroll’s testimony, focuses solely on statements Trump made in June 2019 while he was president. The judicial process was delayed for four years due to multiple appeals by Trump’s lawyers.

Shortly after, in the absence of the jury, Trump’s lawyer Elina Habba announced that her client would testify, Trump could be heard saying aloud: ” I have never met a woman. I don’t know who that woman is“

That comment prompted Kaplan to respond: “I’m sorry, Mr. Trump. You are disturbing these processes. It is not valid.”

Hubba announced to the judge that Trump would be his last witness and that he planned to ask him only three questions to demonstrate that, in his 2019 statements, he was answering questions about Carroll’s allegations and that he did not intend his statements to be damaging. . the author

“I want to know everything he has to say,” Kaplan told Habban.

Kaplan reminded attorneys of the limitations placed on Trump’s testimony, including a ban on testifying against an earlier jury verdict that found Trump sexually assaulted Carol in the dressing room of a luxury Manhattan department store in the spring of 1996 and then defamed her. . 2022.

Trump’s testimony came after Carroll’s lawyers finished presenting their case at a campaign rally on Jan. 17 by showing jurors video clips of the Republican presidential candidate saying Carroll’s claims were a “made up story.” and a 2022 statement that derided her as “a liar and a very sick person”.

The trial, which began last week, is the penalty phase of a defamation lawsuit over statements Trump made as president in 2019, when he claimed Carroll lied to sell books and interfere politically.

Kaplan approved Trump’s deposition weeks ago, indicating that he would be barred from testifying on issues that conflict with last year’s ruling. For example, you can’t say that Carroll made up the sexual assault allegations or that she was motivated to make them because of her book deal or political reasons.

Trump, 77, attended two of the three trial hearings last week and told jurors, through confused comments and head shaking gestures, that he was upset with the case against him.