A jury began deliberations Friday in writer E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case against former U.S. President Donald Trump in New York.
Trump, the likely 2024 Republican nominee to run against Democratic President Joe Biden in the November presidential election, has denied even knowing Carroll, now 80.
Trump took the witness stand Thursday to defend himself against allegations that he defamed writer Carroll by disparaging her claim that he sexually assaulted her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s. He testified that he stood by his 2019 comments that he considered her accusations to be false.
The former president briefly left the courtroom during Friday’s closing arguments.
Jurors will now decide whether Carroll is entitled to any damages. She is seeking $10 million or more.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan had ruled that Trump would not be allowed to testify that he didn’t assault Carroll, a one-time advice columnist for Elle magazine, or that she lied about the assault allegation — since those questions were not before the jury.
Before the civil trial started, Kaplan ruled that a jury in a related case last year had already determined that Trump sexually abused Carroll and that its decision on her abuse allegation carried over to the current case.
That jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $5 million for comments Trump made in 2022, with the current case centered on 2019 comments Trump made while he was president.
Trump has repeatedly denied knowing Carroll and has said she was not “my type.”
Carroll testified last week, “It means I’m too ugly to assault.”
Trump, 77, has attended much of the trial, even though he was not required to be present in the courtroom. He has treated the case like a campaign stop, holding news conferences at the end of the day to attack Carroll’s claims and Kaplan as being biased against him.
“They are weaponizing law enforcement at a level like never before,” Trump said Sunday night at a New Hampshire rally ahead of the Republican primary election he won in the northeastern state Tuesday.
He said he was intent on being in the courtroom for the conclusion of the case.
“You know where I’m going to be,” he told supporters at the rally. “I don’t have to be there, but I want to be there because otherwise, I can’t get a fair shake. I’m going to be in court.”
The Carroll defamation claims are in a civil case, and Trump faces no threat of imprisonment. But he does face an unprecedented 91 criminal charges across four indictments in cases that could go to trial this year.