Trump defends himself on the stand, blasts E. Jean Carroll trial: ‘This is not America’

Former President Trump took the stand on Thursday in his defense in the civil defamation damages trial stemming from E. Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit claiming he sexually attacked her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s. 

The 2024 GOP frontrunner has vehemently denied the allegation. His denial resulted in Carroll slapping Trump with a defamation lawsuit, claiming that his response caused harm to her reputation. 

Upon taking the stand Thursday, Trump was asked three questions by the defense. 

First, Trump was asked whether he saw his deposition played in court, to which he replied: “Yes.” 

Second, he was asked if he stands by his statements in the deposition, to which he replied: “100 percent. Yes.”

And third, he was asked if he ever threatened Carroll in his tweets and social media posts. 

“No,” Trump said. “I was only defending myself from what I believe was a false allegation.” 

The judge struck statements from Trump that went beyond a yes or no answer.

On the way out of the courtroom, Trump repeatedly said: “This is not America.”

E. Jean Carroll arrives at Manhattan federal court, Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024, in New York. Less than a year after convincing a jury that former President Donald Trump sexually abused her decades ago, writer E. Jean Carroll is set to take the stand again to describe how his verbal attacks affected her after she came forward. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, File)

Trump and his legal team insist that Carroll’s allegations are fabricated, with the former president’s initial reaction including an accusation that Carroll was motivated by wanting to sell copies of her book. 

Trump has repeatedly told Fox News Digital that he has “absolutely no idea who this woman is.” 

Carroll, 79, alleged that Trump raped her at the Bergdorf Goodman department store across from Trump Tower in Manhattan sometime in 1996. 

Former President Donald Trump speaks after exiting the courtroom for a break at New York Supreme Court, Dec. 7, 2023, in New York. The notorious 2005 “Access Hollywood” video in which Trump was caught on a hot mic speaking disparagingly about women over a decade before he became president can be shown to jurors deciding what he owes E. Jean Carroll, a columnist he defamed, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024, as he set up ground rules for a trial next week.  (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, File)

A federal jury in New York City decided last year that Trump was not liable for rape but was liable for sexual abuse and defamation. The former president was ordered to pay $5 million.  

Trump, on his Truth Social account last week, posted images of Carroll’s tweets dating back to 2015. In one image, Carroll wrote: “How do you know your ‘unwanted sexual advance’ is unwanted, until you advance it?”

Trump also posted that Carroll “has been ‘all over the place’ on the timing of this alleged ‘incident,’ which never took place, and is being coached by Lunatic Radical Left Democrat operative attorney, Roberta Kaplan, who has sued me before, and just lost.”

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“I am the only one who has been injured by this attempted EXTORTION,” Trump posted.

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan is presiding over the trial. 

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.