Trump Lawyer Tells CNN ‘He Absolutely Testified’ — Hours After Trump Bitterly Ranted He Was ‘Silenced’ In Rape Trial

Trump attorney Alina Habba told CNN that ex-President Donald Trump “absolutely testified” just hours after Trump bitterly vowed to appeal his “silencing” in the rape and defamation trial against him.

The trial in the rape and defamation lawsuit brought by journalist E. Jean Carroll concluded Tuesday afternoon when the jury rendered unanimous verdicts finding Trump liable for sexual battery and defamation, and ordered him to pay Caroll $5 million.

Hours before the verdict, Trump bitterly complained in a Truth Social post that “I, despite being a current political candidate and leading all others in both parties, am not allowed to speak or defend myself,” and vowed to “appeal the Unconstitutional silencing of me, as a candidate, no matter the outcome!”

On Tuesday night’s edition of CNN Primetime, Habba appeared to offer powerful evidence to the contrary when she said “He absolutely testified” just seconds into her interview with host Dana Bash, and spun the fact that the jury found Trump liable for sexual battery but not rape as a victory:

DANA BASH: If Donald Trump didn’t sexually assault E. Jean Carroll, why did he not testify and tell the jury that himself?

ALINA HABBA, ATTORNEY FOR DONALD TRUMP: He absolutely testified.

What he didn’t do was burden the state of New York, like he had to do for his arraignment, and cost them $250 million, by coming in. He testified. He testified under oath. He testified in camera. He testified with the same attorneys that were on trial.

And I was sitting there right next to him. He testified.

BASH: What I’m talking about, of course, is during the actual trial, in front of the jury.

HABBA: Right. And what I’m talking about is, in front of the jury, what we did was, we played his testimony under oath without burdening the jury.

And as — if you looked at the docket, the judge didn’t want that burden. He also made clear that he said that it would be a burden if he came to the court. We made a decision that his testimony, as it stood, was fine.

And you have to remember, when you don’t do anything wrong, the testimony is going to be very limited. We don’t know the day. We don’t know the year. So I didn’t have much to ask him, frankly. And I think that was very clear. We did not know what to say. If somebody says, you stole scissors from me, but I can’t tell you what day, what year, we’re going to say, OK, did you rape her? No.

And you know what? The jury said he didn’t do that.

BASH: But the jury also found him liable for sexual assault and also for defaming her.

Watch above via CNN Primetime.