Trump Testifying in E. Jean Carroll Case 'Can Only Make It Worse'—Attorney

Donald Trump will only make it worse for himself if he testifies at the E. Jean Carroll defamation case, a former federal prosecutor has said.

Carroll's legal team are closing their case on Monday, leaving it open to Trump to testify in his defense.

Writing in her Civil Discourse blog, former prosecutor Joyce Vance noted that the trial is only to decide damages for Trump's comments about Carroll and he therefore will only make it worse if he testifies.

"The smart money says there's no way that his lawyers would expose him to cross-examination at the hands of Carroll's highly competent legal team," Vance wrote.

"Only the amount of damages is in question, and that's not a topic Trump's testimony is particularly helpful with; he can only make it worse. Those damages probably go higher if Trump takes the stand and acts in his predictable fashion."

In May 2023, a jury decided that Trump must pay Carroll a total of $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages over sexual battery and defamation claims.

The jury accepted Carroll's claim that Trump had sexually assaulted her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s and defamed her character when she took a lawsuit against him.

In this latest defamation case, Carroll is suing Trump for 2019 comments he made in which he claimed she was inventing the story. A court has already found that Trump did defame her in those 2019 comments and a jury is only deciding how much damages Trump will have to pay Carroll.

Vance wrote that Trump "could also be at risk of some form of contempt or perhaps even perjury if he insisted under oath that he doesn't know E. Jean Carroll and didn't rape her."

She said that the judge has already limited what Trump can say from the witness stand.

"Because of the pre-trial limitations the Judge imposed, most of what Trump would want to say, and will want his lawyer Alina Habba to say in closing argument to the jury, is off limits. That means there are probably an interesting few days ahead in the courtroom," she wrote.

Newsweek sought email comment from Trump's attorney on Monday.

Trump's team accused Carroll of filing her suits against the former president for political reasons.

In a court filing on Saturday, Carroll's attorney, Roberta Kaplan, warned the court that Trump will try to turn this latest trial into a presidential campaign event when he testifies on Monday.

"As Your Honor is aware, we previously expressed our concern that Defendant would use his testimony in this case to turn the trial into a campaign event, violating court orders about the scope of this trial or admissible evidence in service of a political agenda," Kaplan wrote.

"Our concern in that regard has only increased since the trial began. Defendant has made repeated comments about trial evidence within earshot of the jury, he has sought to develop the public narrative that the Court is not 'allowing [Defendant] to properly defend [himself] from false accusations'; and he has stated on the record that he 'would love' if Your Honor excluded him from the trial for disregarding court orders or engaging in disruptive behavior," Kaplan added.

On January 17, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan threatened to kick Trump out of the courtroom over his loud commentary, which could be heard by the jury.

At the time, Kaplan told the court: "Mr. Trump has the right to be present here. That right can be forfeited. Mr. Trump, I hope I don't have to consider excluding you from the trial."

Trump retorted: "I would love it."

Kaplan continued: "I know you would. I know you would. You just can't control yourself in this circumstance, apparently."

Vance wrote that the trial, and Trump's continued courtroom defiance, could cost him a lot of money.

"Last week ended with testimony on Carroll's damages from Northwestern Professor Ashlee Humphreys, who testified that work to repair her reputation with those who had been exposed to Trump's lies could cost up to $12.1 million. We'll see if Carroll's lawyers offer testimony of additional compensatory damages based on his continued conduct," she wrote.