Former President Donald Trump is expected to leave the campaign trail Monday to return to a Manhattan courtroom and potentially testify in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit against him.
Mr. Trump, who could all but seal the GOP nomination with a big primary win in New Hampshire on Tuesday, has signaled he wants to address the jury in his battle with Ms. Carroll, a columnist who alleges the former president raped her in a department store in 1996 and defamed her when she came forward decades later.
He told Granite State supporters he would be in court, though it remains to be seen whether he will follow through on his plan to testify.
“I don’t have to be there, but I want to be there, because otherwise I can’t get a fair shake. I’m going to be in court,” Mr. Trump said while campaigning in Rochester over the weekend.
Nine jurors are considering whether Ms. Carroll is entitled to new damages because of comments Mr. Trump made as president in 2019.
A previous jury awarded her $5 million after finding Mr. Trump liable for sex abuse and defamation claims related to her claims and the former president’s comments from 2022.
The court said the liability finding from the first trial would carry over to the second trial, so jurors need only determine how much Mr. Trump must pay.
Because of those parameters, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan will restrict what Mr. Trump can say on the witness stand.
For instance, Mr. Trump cannot argue he did not sexually assault Ms. Carroll or say he fully believed what he said about Ms. Carroll in 2019.
The drama in Manhattan is unfolding one day before a New Hampshire primary that will determine whether Mr. Trump faces competition from Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, or coasts to the Republican presidential nomination.
Mr. Trump missed courtroom action on Thursday because he attended his mother-in-law’s funeral in Florida.
Things turned testy earlier in the trial when Judge Kaplan scolded Mr. Trump for his audible reactions to Ms. Carroll’s testimony.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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