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Former US president Donald Trump’s testimony in the writer E Jean Carroll’s defamation case ended almost immediately after it began. Mr Trump stood by his earlier testimony that Ms Carroll’s claim that he raped her was a hoax.
“One hundred per cent yes,” Mr Trump told his lawyer Alina Habba in federal court in Manhattan when asked if his comments in an October 2022 deposition in Ms Carroll’s case were accurate.
Earlier on Thursday, Ms Carroll’s lawyers played videotaped excerpts from the deposition, in which Mr 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,” said Mr Trump in the deposition.
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Ms Carroll (80), is seeking at least $10 million (€9 million) over Mr Trump’s June 2019 denials that he had raped her in the mid-1990s in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan.
Last May, another jury ordered Mr Trump to pay Ms Carroll $5 million after he denied her rape claim in October 2022.
Mr Trump (77), spent only four minutes on the witness stand after US district judge Lewis Kaplan, who has overseen both trials, said he would not allow “do-overs by disappointed litigants” and let Mr Trump revisit the first jury’s findings.
That jury ruled that Mr Trump defamed Carroll, and sexually abused her, and the judge said those findings were binding in the second trial.
The judge struck much of what Mr Trump said on the witness stand from the record, meaning that the seven-man, two-woman jury cannot consider it during deliberations.
Mr Trump testified “yes I did” when his attorney Ms Habba asked if he had publicly denied Ms Carroll’s rape claim to defend himself, and “no” when Ms Habba 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 told jurors to disregard this comment.
The judge, who is known for maintaining tight control in his courtroom, limited Mr Trump’s testimony after overhearing him discuss Ms Carroll, outside the jury’s presence.
“I wasn’t at the trial,” said Mr Trump. “I don’t know who this woman is. I never met this woman.”
The judge cut him off. “I’m sorry, Mr Trump, you are interrupting these proceedings by talking loudly,” said the judge.
The trial has lasted four days, and closing arguments are expected on Friday.
Jurors will consider only how much money Mr Trump should pay Ms Carroll, if any, for damaging her reputation, and whether he owes additional sums as punishment and to keep him from defaming her again.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump’s former trade adviser Peter Navarro was sentenced on Thursday to four months in prison for contempt of Congress, with a judge scolding him for defying a subpoena in an investigation into the January 6th, 2021, US Capitol attack.
US district judge Amit Mehta told Navarro (74), during the sentencing hearing in Washington federal court that his refusal to provide documents and testimony had hindered the work of the Democratic-led House of Representatives committee.
“They had a job to do and you made it harder,” said the judge.
Mr Navarro was found guilty by a jury in September of two misdemeanour counts of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the committee. The panel investigated the January 6th attack by Trump supporters and broader attempts by the former president to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.
Mr Navarro asked that any sentence be put on hold while he pursues an appeal. The judge did not immediately decide on that issue.
Mr Navarro has argued that he believed that he did not have to co-operate with Congress because he thought Mr Trump had invoked the legal doctrine of executive privilege, which shields some presidential records and communications from disclosure.
Mr Navarro advised Mr Trump on trade issues during his presidency and served on a Covid-19 task force. He became a vocal supporter of Mr Trump’s false claims of widespread voting fraud in the 2020 election. Mr Trump’s supporters sought to prevent Congress from certifying Mr Biden’s victory, clashing with police and rampaging through the Capitol.
The House committee had sought to interview Mr Navarro about his plan, dubbed the “Green Bay Sweep,” to derail the certification of the election results. — Reuters