Everything Trump Said on Witness Stand in His Defense at E. Jean Carroll Defamation Trial

Former President Donald Trump briefly took the stand on Thursday in the civil trial held over E. Jean Carroll’s defamation suit against him.

After being sworn in, Trump faced just a few questions from his own lawyer, Alina Habba.

Habba, according to reporters in the courtroom, asked if Trump if he stood by his denials of the sexual assault alleged by Carroll, which he said he did. When she asked if he denied the allegations, Trump replied, “Exactly right.”

“She said something. I consider it a false accusation,” he said, an answer Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is overseeing the case, struck from the record, citing the previous trial’s verdict that Trump had in fact sexually abused Carroll — and the judge’s specific rulings that Trump was barred from trying to re-litigate that issue in this trial.

Habba then asked if Trump wanted to hurt Carroll, to which he replied, “No. I wanted to defend myself, my family, and frankly, the presidency.” Kaplan also struck that from the record.

According to legal reporter Adam Klasfeld, Trump “sneered at the spectators in the gallery” on his way out of the courtroom and said, “It’s not America. It’s not America. This is not America.”

Before he took the stand, Trump was scolded by Judge Kaplan for speaking loudly over his lawyer, and insisting, “I never met this woman.”

Kaplan reminded the courtroom of the results of Trump’s first trial in this case: “The jury found Mr. Trump inserted his fingers into her vagina. Ms. Carroll did not make up her claim.”