Trump says he plans to attend E. Jean Carroll defamation trial

Former President Trump on Thursday said he wants to attend all of his upcoming trials in person, and he plans to start next week with a trial over defamation damages involving writer E. Jean Carroll.

Trump delivered remarks and took questions at 40 Wall Street in New York City following his defense team’s closing arguments in a fraud trial over his business practices, where he sat in the courtroom for much of the proceedings earlier in the day.

The former president was asked whether he planned to attend the E. Jean Carroll, trial, scheduled to start Tuesday, the day after the Iowa caucuses.

“Yeah I’m going to go to it, and I’m going to explain I don’t know who the hell she is,” he said, claiming her case has been backed by Democratic operatives. Trump is barred from testifying that the sexual assault did not occur.

The trial will determine what Trump owes in defamation damages after a jury concluded last year that Trump sexually abused Carroll.

At the same time, Trump is facing federal charges in Washington, D.C., over his efforts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election and in Florida over his handling of classified materials after leaving office. 

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He is also facing state charges in New York over an alleged hush money scheme to keep quiet an affair during the 2016 campaign and in Georgia over his efforts to overturn the state’s election results in 2020.

“I want to go to all of my trials,” Trump said when asked if he planned to attend those proceedings as well.

Trump has blurred the lines between his legal cases and his campaign, repeatedly framing the charges against him as an attempt to hurt him politically because of his strong poll numbers.

Trump is the dominant frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, and polling has shown a close hypothetical matchup between him and President Biden in a general election.

“It’s a witch hunt in the truest sense of the word. It’s election interference,” Trump said Thursday.

There is no evidence Biden played any role in his Justice Department’s decision to indict Trump, or in the charges brought by district attorneys in New York and Georgia, respectively.