Donald Trump is back Thursday in a federal courthouse in New York City, where he's expected to testify in his own defense in E. Jean Carroll's defamation case against him.
Trump, who defeated Nikki Haley in Tuesday's GOP presidential primary in New Hampshire during a three-day Covid-related postponement of the trial, is likely to take the stand in the early afternoon. Carroll's team rested its case shortly after 11 a.m. ET. Trump's team called as its first witness Carol Martin, a friend of Carroll's and a former anchor at WCBS-TV in New York.
The jury heard from the former president ahead of his testimony; Carroll's attorneys played a snippet from a press conference he held after court last week where he called her claim that Trump sexually assaulted her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s a "rigged and made up story." The jury was also shown some of his posts on his social media platform Truth Social attacking her before being shown excerpts from his hours-long 2022 videotaped deposition in the case, where he repeatedly bragged about his wealth.
In the deposition, he said his Doral golf resort is worth $2.5 billion, his Mar-a-Lago estate $1.5 billion and that his "brand is worth more than all of the properties put together."
In another excerpt, Carroll attorney Roberta Kaplan asked Trump about the statements at the heart of the current case — when the then-president called Carroll's claims a politically motivated hoax, said she was "not my type," and suggested she made up the claim for profit. Asked if he'd done any research into his claims before making them, Trump acknowledged he had not. Asked if he stood by his comments, Trump said, "Yes."
After insisting in the deposition that Carroll was not his type, Trump was shown an old picture of him and Carroll standing together at an event and mistook her for his ex-wife Marla Maples. Trump then told Kaplan the picture was "blurry."
Carroll is seeking at least $10 million in compensatory damages for "injury to her reputation, humiliation and mental anguish in her public and private life," in addition to an unspecified amount in punitive damages to "punish Trump for acting maliciously and to deter Trump and others" from continuing to defame her. An expert who testified on Carroll’s behalf put the cost of repairing her reputation alone at $7 million to $12 million.
Trump was initially expected to testify Monday, but the proceedings were postponed after a juror fell ill and Trump attorney Alina Habba told the judge she’d been exposed to the coronavirus and was feeling sick. Habba and her co-counsel Michael Madaio both tested negative for the virus Monday. All nine jurors were present Thursday, and five were wearing masks.
The first witness called by her lawyer Thursday was Roberta Myers, the former Elle magazine editor-in-chief who headed the magazine while Carroll had a regular advice column. Myers testified the column was popular and that Carroll had a reputation as "a truth-teller."
Martin, Trump's first witness, testified that she'd been friends with Carroll for over 30 years. She was one of two people Carroll told about the Trump assault at the time it happened. Asked if Carroll enjoyed the attention she received after she went public with her accusation, Martin said, "At points, in early years."
Asked if she was "loving the adulation" she was receiving at one point, Martin said, "Yes."
Asked about a text she'd sent someone else saying she was suspicious of Carroll's motives, Martin initially said she didn't recall it and then called it "a bad choice of words on my part."
A different jury last year found Trump liable for the attack and defaming Carroll.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan used that jury’s verdict to find Trump liable for defaming her in the current case.
The finding restricts what Trump can say on the witness stand. Because it is an established fact in the case that Trump sexually abused and defamed Carroll, he can't testify otherwise — even though he has continued to bash Carroll publicly.
"Mr. Trump is precluded from offering any testimony, evidence or argument suggesting or implying that he did not sexually assault Ms. Carroll, that she fabricated her account of the assault, or that she had any motive to do so," Kaplan wrote in a ruling Jan. 9.
Trump has given no indication he plans to stick to Kaplan's guidelines. Asked about his testimony before the trial started, he told reporters, “I’m going to explain I don’t know who the hell she is.”
Carroll’s attorneys had asked Kaplan to rein in Trump’s testimony ahead of time in case he tries to “sow chaos.” The judge has said the court “will take such measures as it finds appropriate to avoid circumvention of its rulings and of the law.”
Trump, 77, has already clashed with Kaplan, 79, in the courtroom.
During Carroll’s testimony last week, her attorney complained that Trump was offering animated commentary to his lawyer that the jury could overhear. Kaplan asked Trump to take “special care to keep his voice down.” The directive apparently didn't take — Carroll’s lawyer Shawn Crowley told the judge that she could hear Trump calling Carroll’s claims a “con job” and that the jury could, too.
Kaplan then told Trump that he has the right to be present in court but that that right could be forfeited if he's disruptive or ignores court order.
“Mr. Trump, I hope I don’t have to consider excluding you from the trial. I understand you are very eager for me to do that,” Kaplan said.
“I would love it,” Trump responded.
“I know you would, because you just can’t control yourself in this circumstance, apparently. You just can’t,” Kaplan shot back. “Neither can you,” Trump said.
Trump had said he was going to testify in the earlier Carroll case, but he ultimately decided not to.
If Trump does take the stand, it would be the second time he has done so in two months — he testified in November in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ $250 million fraud suit against him and his company.
During his one day on the stand, Trump called the case a “scam” and labeled James a “political hack” while calling the judge presiding over the nonjury trial “very hostile.”
That judge, Arthur Engoron, is expected to issue a decision with his findings in the coming weeks.
The last time Trump testified in front of a jury was in 2013.
In that instance, he was being sued over allegations he duped an 87-year-old woman in a condominium bait-and-switch at a Trump building in Chicago. The Associated Press described his testimony at the time as “sometimes prickly, sometimes boastful.” The jury found in his favor.
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