E. Jean Carroll defamation case live updates: Trump indicates he’ll attend trial today, could take stand

(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is on trial this week in New York City to determine whether he will have to pay former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll additional damages for defaming her in 2019 when he denied her allegations of sexual abuse.

Last year, in a separate trial, a jury determined that Trump was liable for sexually abusing Carroll in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store in the 1990s, and that he defamed her in a 2022 social media post by calling her allegations “a Hoax and a lie” and saying “This woman is not my type!”

Trump has denied all wrongdoing and has said he doesn’t know who Carroll is.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Jan 25, 9:00 AM
Carroll’s attorneys expected to rest their case

If former President Trump takes the stand in his own defense today, it will happen after Carroll’s attorneys rest their case.

Carroll’s lawyers plan to call one final witness: Robbie Myers, the former editor-in-chief of Elle magazine, where Carroll was an advice columnist.

As part of the defense’s case, Trump’s lawyers also plan to call Carol Martin, a friend of Carroll’s who testified in the earlier assault and defamation trial.

Jan 25, 7:53 AM
Trump indicates he’ll attend trial today, could take stand

In a post to his Truth Social platform overnight, former President Trump indicated that he will attend his defamation damages trial today.

“But now I’m heading back to New York City for a trial based on False Accusations, from perhaps decades ago — The woman has no idea when!” Trump wrote.

Carroll has accused Trump of assaulting her around 1996 but can’t pinpoint the year.

In a series of other posts, Trump also disparaged Carroll, said she made up her story, and suggested she was a paid political operative.

If Trump takes the stand today, he would be banned from using any of those defenses based on a pretrial ruling by Judge Lewis Kaplan which determined that — because a jury last year already found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and then defaming her — Trump is barred from arguing that he did not sexually abuse Carroll or that he never met her.