Donald Trump confirmed that he will appear at a defamation trial brought against him by author E Jean Carroll, who a jury determined was sexually assaulted by the former president during the 1990s.
Mr Trump made the announcement during a press conference after he gave the closing argument in his New York fraud trial. He said he planned to attend the defamation trial, which takes place next week on Tuesday.
"Yeah, I'm going to go to it, and I'm going to explain I don't know who the hell she is. I have no idea," he said.
Mr Trump has continually denied knowing Ms Carroll — despite at one point mistaking her for his first wife — and has dismissed the case as a political witch hunt "sponsored by the Democrats" to attack him. He has gone as far as to insist the trial constitutes "election interference" from Joe Biden.
In May, a jury determined that Mr Trump did sexually assault Ms Carroll in the dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman store and later defamed her when he called her a liar and insulted her. She was awarded $5m.
Next week’s trial will focus on determining damages for remarks Mr Trump made about Ms Caroll in 2019 while he was serving as president, but more recent allegedly defamatory remarks the former president made are likely to play a part in the trial.
In 2019, after a New York Magazine piece detailing Ms Carroll's claims was published, Mr Trump said she was "totally lying" and said he had "no idea" who she was and that she was "not my type."
The case is one of several in which Mr Trump has attempted to claim presidential immunity. He has yet to escape any of his legal proceedings on those grounds, despite multiple attempts to do so.
Ms Caroll is asking for $10m in compensatory damages, but Mr Trump may be ordered to pay more in punitive damages if the jury agrees that he has continued to defame Ms Carroll even after the first trial's judgement.
Mr Trump is also facing charges in Fulton County, Georgia for allegedly trying to steal the 2020 election, charges stemming from his handling of sensitive government documents he kept at Mar-a-Lago, conspiracy charges relating to the Capitol riot, and a pending civil fraud case in New York.
He told reporters that planned to attend all of his trials.
