What happened in court when Trump took the stand in federal defamation case

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• Amna Nawaz:

  Well, former President Donald Trump is also dealing with his own legal problems today.

  He took the stand in a New York City courtroom as part of the defamation lawsuit filed by writer E. Jean Carroll. In an earlier trial, Trump was found guilty of sexually abusing Carroll in the 1990s in a department store dressing room and then defaming her by denying the assault and alleging she invented the story to make money.

  Our William Brangham was in the courtroom today, and he joins us now.

  William, it's good to see you.

  We should note the president, despite the conviction, has all along maintained his innocence in all of this, but this testimony from him was long awaited. So, tell us, what did he have to say on the stand?

• William Brangham:

  Well, Amna, he didn't have much to say.

  I mean, the former president was on the stand for less than five minutes in total today. And that's largely because Judge Lewis Kaplan had put a series of constraints on the former president, arguing that he cannot, by law, try to relitigate the previous case, which he was found guilty on.

  And the former president was clearly angered and chafed against all of this. But he got on the stand and answered a few quick questions. He said that he 100 percent stood by a previous deposition, saying that this all set of accusations was a hoax against him. He was asked if he had ever intentionally asked someone to harm E. Jean Carroll. He said no.

  And that was largely it. He got off the stand and, as he was walking out the courtroom, very angrily muttered: "This is not America. This is not America."

• Amna Nawaz:

  So, William, he's already been found guilty of sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll and of defaming her. So what is it that the jury is deciding in this particular case?

• William Brangham:

  The jury has to decide how much money, if any, that E. Jean Carroll deserves to get from Donald Trump for those defamatory comments that he made about her when he was the president.

  She alleges that, after he made those comments, she suffered through a torrent of online abuse and death threats and harm to her reputation. She says this is what happens when a former sitting president, then-sitting president, accuses you publicly of being a liar and making up a story to attack him.

  It is worth noting that, even though he has been found guilty of defamation, the former president continues to say this, not in a courtroom, but at every campaign rally, every interview he does on social media, he is continuing to say these defamatory comments about E. Jean Carroll.

• Amna Nawaz:

  So this is one case that seems to be coming to a close.

  I want to ask you about another case involving former President Trump. That's being brought in Fulton County, Georgia, related to his alleged attempts to interfere in the 2020 election.

  William, there have been some serious accusations brought against the prosecutor in that case. What's the latest on that?

• William Brangham:

  That's right, Amna.

  The prosecutor in that case is the Fulton County district attorney, Fani Willis. She has got this elaborate election interference case. She's got 19 defendants that she has charged. A few weeks ago, one of those defendants came forward in a motion and said that the lead prosecutor that Willis appointed, a man named Nathan Wade, was in fact Willis' boyfriend.

  And he alleged that Wade was using the over half-a-million dollars in legal fees that he's been charging against this case to take Willis on fancy vacations and that this is clearly a conflict of interest and she should be dismissed from this case.

  Now, Willis hasn't said anything publicly about — directly about these accusations. She did a week or so ago seem to imply that all the attacks against her and Wade, because both of them are black, that these were rooted in racism.

  Now, today, Donald Trump's lawyers seized on that accusation and said, if you're out there claiming that the defendants in this case are racists, you are hopelessly tainting a potential jury pool and that the district attorney should be dismissed and the entire case should be dismissed.

  So, this has escalated very, very quickly. The judge in this case has now set a hearing for February 15, middle of next month, to go through these accusations, and we will see what happens at that point, but, so far, a very serious shadow cast over this quite consequential case.

• Amna Nawaz:

  All right, that is William Brangham covering the trials of former President Donald Trump joining us from New York.

  William, thank you.

• William Brangham:

  Thanks, Amna.