NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump has been telling the public for years what he thinks about E. Jean Carroll, the writer who claims he sexually assaulted her in the 1990s. Now he has a chance to talk to a jury about her, but within limits he might test it.
Trump could testify as early as Monday in the defamation trial over his 2019 comments labeling Carroll as a liar who staged a sexual assault to sell his memoir. He plans to appear in court as the trial resumes in New York after a weekend away.
Because another jury ruled last year that Trump sexually assaulted Carroll, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan has ruled that if the former president takes the stand now, he will not be allowed to say she fabricated her accusation or that she was motivated. due to financial or political considerations.
But even as he merely watched the proceedings, the loquacious ex-president and current Republican front-runner has not controlled his disdain for the case.
While Carroll was testifying last week, he complained loudly enough to his lawyers about a “witch hunt” and a “con” that the judge threatened to throw Trump out of the courtroom if he continued. Trump went ahead and stayed in court, then held a press conference where he deplored the “nasty judge.”
“It’s honestly a shame what’s happening,” Trump told reporters, repeating his claim that Carroll’s claim was “a made-up, made-up story.”
In addition to clashing with Kaplan, Trump also took on a New York state judge in his recent civil suit fraud case, alleging he inflated his wealth. Trump, who denies any wrongdoing, delivered a kind of short closing argument without committing to rules for summonses and attacked the judge from the witness stand. He was also fined a total of $15,000 for what the judge deemed a violation of a silence order regarding comments about court personnel. Trump’s lawyers are appealing the order.
In Carroll’s case, her lawyers have begged the judge to make Trump swear before any testimony that he understands and accepts the court’s restrictions on what he can say.
“There are a number of reasons why Mr. Trump might see a personal or political advantage if he deliberately turns this trial into a circus,” attorney Roberta Kaplan, who is not related, wrote in a letter to the judge.
Trump is dealing with four criminal cases, the civil fraud case and the Carroll lawsuit as the presidential primary season gets underway. He is juggling court and campaign appearances, using both to claim he is being persecuted by Democrats terrified of his possible election.
After Monday’s hearing, Trump is expected to travel to an evening campaign event in New Hampshire, where the Republican presidential primaries will be held on Tuesday.
His visits to the court have also at times increased media coverage of developments he likes — such as an accounting professor’s testimony for Trump’s defense in the fraud trial — and his criticism of developments he dislikes.
He frequently addressed the news cameras waiting outside the fraud trial in a New York state court. Cameras are not allowed in the federal courthouse where the Carroll trial is taking place, so he left at one point and held a press conference in one of his New York buildings while his accuser continued to testify against him.
“I’m here because Donald Trump attacked me, and when I wrote about it, he said it never happened. He lied and shattered my reputation,” Carroll, a former former advice columnist for Elle magazine, told jurors and Trump while still in the courtroom.
Trump is not required to attend or testify in the civil case. He stayed away from the earlier trial last year, where another jury awarded Carroll $5 million after deciding that Trump sexually assaulted her in 1996 and made defamatory comments about her in 2022. Trump will appeal that verdict.
For complex legal reasons, Carroll’s defamation claims were split between two lawsuits. Hence the second lawsuit, in which she demands more than ten million dollars in damages.
Trump has said his lawyers advised him not to dignify the first trial by attending it. He goes to the second, he says, because of what he sees as the judge’s hostility.
Trump attorney Alina Habba told the court in a letter that he could take the stand because, even with the judge’s restrictions, he “can still provide significant testimony in his defense.”
He can testify, among other things, about his state of mind when he made the statements that landed him in court and how his comments came about when Carroll was doing media interviews and reporters asked him about her, Habba wrote.
She also suggested he could “show his lack of ill will or resentment” by talking about how he “corrected” his initial denial that he had ever met Carroll.
The review occurred after a reporter drew Trump’s attention to a 1987 photo of him, Carroll and their then-husbands at a charity event. Trump responded that he was “standing in a line with my jacket on – give me a break.”
The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Carroll has done.
