NEW YORK - Donald Trump’s time on the stand in the writer E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case ended almost immediately after it began, with the former US president standing by his earlier testimony that Ms Carroll’s claim that he raped her was a hoax.

“100 per cent yes,” Trump told his lawyer Alina Habba in federal court in Manhattan, when asked if his comments in an October 2022 deposition in Ms Carroll’s case were accurate.

Earlier on Jan 25, Ms Carroll’s lawyers played videotaped excerpts from the deposition, in which Trump called the former Elle magazine advice columnist “mentally sick” and a “whack job” and threatened to sue her.

“It’s a false accusation, never happened, never would happen,” Trump said in the deposition.

Ms Carroll, 80, is seeking at least US$10 million (S$13.4 million) over Trump’s June 2019 denials, when he was president, that he had raped her in the mid-1990s in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan.

Trump, 77, accused Ms Carroll of making up the rape to boost sales of her memoir.

In May 2023, a jury ordered Trump to pay Ms Carroll US$5 million over a similar denial in October 2022. He is appealing against the decision.

Trump spent only four minutes on the witness stand after US District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who has overseen both trials, said he would not allow “do-overs by disappointed litigants” and let Trump revisit the first jury’s findings.

That jury concluded that Trump defamed Ms Carroll and sexually abused her, and Judge Kaplan said those findings were binding in the current trial.

Ms Carroll’s case has become part of Trump’s campaign to retake the White House in the November election.

The Republican front runner has been shuttling between the courtroom and campaign stops while criticising Ms Carroll, the judge and the judicial process online and at press conferences.

‘You are interrupting these proceedings’

Judge Kaplan struck most of what Trump said on the witness stand from the record, meaning the seven-man, two-woman jury cannot consider it during deliberations.

Trump testified “yes I did” when Ms Habba asked if he had publicly denied Ms Carroll’s rape claim to defend himself, and “no” when asked if he had intended to harm Ms Carroll.

He then said he had “wanted to defend myself, my family, and frankly the presidency”, but the judge instructed jurors to disregard the comment.

The trial has lasted four days, and closing arguments are expected on Jan 26.

Before Trump took the stand, Judge Kaplan and lawyers for both sides discussed outside the jury’s presence what the former president could say, when the judge overheard Trump talking about Ms Carroll and the first trial, which he did not attend.

“I wasn’t at the trial,” Trump said. “I don’t know who this woman is. I never met this woman.”

Judge Kaplan, who is known for maintaining tight control over his courtroom, cut him off. “I’m sorry, Mr Trump, you are interrupting these proceedings by talking loudly,” the judge said.

Jurors will consider how much money Trump should pay Ms Carroll for damaging her reputation, and perhaps additional sums as punishment and to stop him from defaming her again.

To win, Ms Carroll must prove her case by a preponderance of the evidence, meaning more likely than not.

Carroll’s friend testifies

A damages expert testified on Ms Carroll’s behalf last week that the reputational damage from Trump’s 2019 comments could be as high as US$12.1 million.

Trump’s legal team has said Ms Carroll’s damages should be nominal or zero, and that Ms Carroll sought out and has enjoyed the adulation from coming forward.

They have also said it was the publication of excerpts from Ms Carroll’s book in New York Magazine, and not Trump’s comments, that led people to brand Ms Carroll a liar.

Ms Carol Martin, a former New York TV news anchor and a close friend of Ms Carroll, was the only other defence witness, with Ms Habba trying to establish how Ms Carroll enjoyed her newfound fame.

Ms Martin acknowledged having sent texts, after Ms Carroll first accused Trump of rape, that described Ms Carroll as being like “Santa at a Christmas parade” and “like a drug addict and the drug is herself”, but said she regretted using hyperbole.

“She is adapting to the change in her life,” Ms Martin said. “‘Enjoying’ is a multifaceted word.”

Ms Martin had testified on Ms Carroll’s behalf at the 2023 trial. Under questioning from one of Ms Carroll’s lawyers, Ms Martin said she had no qualms about the writer’s motives.

“What she always wanted was to have her day in court,” Ms Martin said.

On Jan 25, Ms Carroll’s lawyers finished presenting their case, with former Elle editor-in-chief Robbie Myers testifying that she had viewed Ms Carroll as a “truth-teller” whose empathy and sense of humour made her “so important” to the Elle brand. REUTERS