Former President Donald Trump broke Judge Lewis Kaplan’s rules immediately after taking the stand in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case on Thursday.
Trump testified in a New York court for only a matter of minutes. During his testimony, Trump said of Carroll’s sexual assault allegations: “She said something I considered a false accusation,” according to Inner City Press reporter Matthew Russell Lee, who is covering the trial.
Lee said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, objected to Trump’s statement, which Judge Kaplan sustained.
Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images
Last week, the trial began to determine how much Trump will pay Carroll, a former Elle columnist, for defaming her. Carroll filed a lawsuit against Trump in 2019, claiming that Trump accused her of lying when she came forward with sexual assault allegations. She accused Trump in 2019 of raping her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.
A jury already found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation last May in another defamation case that Carroll filed in 2022. Trump has maintained his innocence in both lawsuits and continues to deny that he sexually assaulted Carroll.
This is a developing story and will be updated as information becomes available.
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