Donald Trump’s hotly anticipated moment on the witness stand at E. Jean Carroll’s trial landed with a thud — lasting less than three minutes.
Donald Trump’s hotly anticipated moment taking the stand in his own defense at E. Jean Carroll’s defamation damages trial landed with a thud Thursday.
The former president, 77, testified for less than three minutes — after a Manhattan federal court judge ordered that he be kept on a tight leash, restricting what he could tell jurors about Carroll’s allegations.
His defense attorney Alina Habba was only allowed to ask him a handful of questions, and Trump was barred from veering off-topic.
First, Habba asked Trump about taped testimony from 2022 in which he denied knowing Carroll, 80, who has accused him of sexually assaulting her and defaming her by calling her a liar.
“You viewed your deposition, didn’t you?” Habba asked.
“Yes, I did,” Trump replied.
“Do you stand by it?” the lawyer probed.
“One hundred percent. Yes,” he answered.
Then, Habba asked if Trump was defending himself when he denied Carroll’s sexual assault allegations in public statements as president in 2019.
“Yes, I did,” Trump answered. “That’s exactly right. [Carroll] said something I considered a false allegation.”
But Judge Lewis Kaplan quickly jumped in and told the jury to disregard everything Trump had said after, “Yes, I did.”
Habba then asked if he ever intended to hurt Carroll — a question that appeared meant to defend against the former “Ask E. Jean” advice columnist’s claims that Trump “unleashed his followers” on her.
“No, I just wanted to defend myself, my family … and frankly, the presidency,” Trump answered.
The judge again jumped in and told the jury to disregard everything in Trump’s statement after the word “No.”
Still, Trump was uncharacteristically subdued during his brief stint on the witness stand — apart from two outburst when the jury wasn’t around, including huffing “This is not America” as he left the courtroom.
The ex-president’s muzzling was a product of a prior ruling by the judge that barred Trump from denying both that he had sexually assaulted, and that he didn’t know Carroll, at the trial.
