NEW YORK: Donald Trump stormed out of a New York court on Friday as the jury heard closing arguments on why the former president should compensate a woman he was found to have sexually assaulted and defamed.
Writer E. Jean Carroll is seeking more than $10 million in damages for defamation by Trump in a federal court in New York, which has the power only to impose a civil penalty, not a criminal conviction.
After the closing arguments, for which Trump does not have to be present, the jury will begin deliberating on the level of damages to be paid — if at all.
The 77-year-old Trump — whom a jury found liable for sexual assault of Carroll in a separate federal civil case in New York — took the stand briefly Thursday to deny he instructed anyone to harm Carroll with his statements.
During Trump’s testimony Thursday, Judge Lewis Kaplan limited him to three questions from his lawyers, to which he could only answer yes or no to prevent him digressing from the case.
“This is not America,” Trump said as he left the courtroom following his short appearance.
Trump is not required to attend the trial or to testify. However, he has used the case, as well as others he faces, to generate heated media coverage and to fuel his claims of being victimized as he campaigns for a return to the White House in November’s election.
Trump separately faces multiple criminal cases, including his alleged attempt to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Joe Biden, and a civil business fraud case.
Carroll, 80, alleges that Trump defamed her in 2019, when she first made her assault allegations public, by saying she “is not my type.”
Last week when asked about how the comment damaged her reputation, Carroll said “previously I was known simply as a journalist, and now I’m known as a liar, a fraud, and a whack job” — quoting other insults leveled at her by the de facto leader of the Republican Party.
Earlier this week the Republican ex-president unleashed a new battery of attacks on Carroll, using his Truth Social platform to smear her and deny the veracity of her evidence over the course of 37 messages.
Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba sought to have the case thrown out Thursday on the grounds that threatening messages targeting Carroll, which feature in the case, began on social media before Trump’s 2019 comments. Her request was denied.
Jurors were shown Trump’s October 2022 deposition during which he confused a picture of Carroll for his former wife Marla Maples, which threatened to cast doubt on his claim Carroll was not his “type.”
There were tense moments in court last week as Carroll testified just a few rows from where Trump sat.
Carroll’s legal team complained that Trump was making audible comments about her testimony and that jurors could be influenced.
The judge asked that Trump lower his voice when conferring with his legal team, and later threatened to throw him out altogether.
Last year, another federal jury found Trump liable for sexually assaulting Carroll in a department store dressing room in 1996 and subsequently defaming her in 2022, when he called her a “complete con job.”
Trump had been in court while he campaigned ahead of the New Hampshire primary, which he won handily over his only remaining challenge