Donald Trump has given evidence for just three minutes in a defamation trial to determine how much he might owe advice columnist E Jean Carroll for disparaging her as a liar after she accused him of a decades-old rape in 2019.
“She said something I considered a false accusation,” Mr Trump said.
A lawyer for Ms Carroll objected and US District Judge Lewis Kaplan told the jury to disregard the remark.
Later, Mr Trump said: “And I just wanted to defend myself, my family and frankly, the presidency.”
That also drew an objection and another instruction from the judge for the jury to disregard it.
As Mr Trump left the New York courtroom after his testimony, he was shaking his head, repeatedly saying: “This is not America. This is not America. This is not America.”
Ms Carroll, who is seeking over 10 million dollars (£7.87m) in damages, was in court as Mr Trump was sworn in as a witness in Manhattan federal court.
Ms Carroll claims Mr Trump ruined her reputation after she accused him for the first time publicly in a memoir of sexually abusing her in spring 1996 in the dressing room of a Manhattan luxury department store.
Mr Trump, 77, has denied the accusations for the last five years and continues to attack Ms Carroll, 80, on the campaign trail as he pursues the presidency as the Republican frontrunner.
US District Judge Lewis A Kaplan has instructed jurors that they must accept the findings of another New York jury that awarded Ms Carroll 5 million dollars (£3.93m) after concluding that Mr Trump sexually abused her at the Bergdorf Goodman store and defamed her in October 2022 statements. Mr Trump did not attend that trial.
The trial that began last week and already featured testimony by Ms Carroll focuses only on statements Mr Trump made in June 2019 while he was president. Those claims had been delayed for four years by appeals.
Soon after the announcement by Trump attorney Alina Habba out of the presence of the jury, Mr Trump could be heard saying aloud: “I never met the woman. I don’t know who the woman is. I wasn’t at the trial.”
That comment prompted Judge Kaplan to respond: “I’m sorry Mr Trump. You’re interrupting these proceedings. That is not permitted.”
Ms Habba told the Manhattan federal court judge that Mr Trump was her last witness after a lunch break and that she only planned to ask him three questions to elicit that he was addressing questions in 2019 in response to Ms Carroll’s claims in a memoir that he raped her and that he did not intend his statements to harm Ms Carroll.
“I want to know everything he’s going to say,” Judge Kaplan told Ms Habba, who said Mr Trump would also say that he stood by a deposition in October 2022.