Former US President Donald Trump testified against him in a civil defamation trial. He once again rejected the allegations made by author E. Jean Carroll. “She said something that I considered to be a false accusation,” Trump said after being called to the witness stand.
In doing so, he violated the guidelines of the responsible judge, Lewis A. Kaplan, as to what was permissible within the scope of the statement. A member of Carroll’s legal team then objected and the jury was instructed by the judge to ignore Trump’s comment.
Trump said he never wanted to hurt Carroll, adding: “I just wanted to defend myself, my family and, frankly, the presidency.”
First trial last year
In a first trial last year, Trump was sentenced to five million dollars in damages and compensation for sexual abuse and defamation of the author. Two weeks after the verdict, however, Carroll called for even harsher punishment for Trump in an updated lawsuit after he again denied Carroll’s rape allegations and insulted her as a “crazy” during a live CNN town hall interview in front of an audience of millions.
Carroll accuses Trump of raping her in a dressing room at the New York luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman in 1996. The long-time columnist for “Elle” magazine first made her accusation public in 2019, when Trump was still president.
Former US President Donald Trump testified against him in a civil defamation trial. He once again rejected the allegations made by author E. Jean Carroll. “She said something that I considered to be a false accusation,” Trump said after being called to the witness stand.
In doing so, he violated the guidelines of the responsible judge, Lewis A. Kaplan, as to what was permissible within the scope of the statement. A member of Carroll’s legal team then objected and the jury was instructed by the judge to ignore Trump’s comment.