After missing a Sunday deadline to seek the court to attend, former US President Donald Trump will not testify in a civil trial to refute charges made by author E. Jean Carroll that he sexually assaulted her in the 1990s and later defamed her.

Trump’s attorney Joseph Tacopina informed the judge on Thursday that Trump had decided not to provide a defence in the Manhattan federal court trial and had instead renounced his right to testify, betting that the jury would find Carroll’s evidence to be unpersuasive.

Trump’s legal team informed the court on Thursday that the former president will not testify in the case, Tacopina said in a statement in response to a Reuters request for comment.

US District Judge Lewis Kaplan instructed Tacopina to advise Trump that he had until Sunday at 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) to inform the court whether he wanted to testify after the jury had departed for the day on Thursday.

On Monday, Kaplan scheduled the two parties’ closing arguments. Carroll, 79, accused Trump, 76, of sexually assaulting her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in 1995 or 1996, and he then defamed her by denying it ever place. Carroll filed her case against Trump last year. The former advice writer for Elle magazine is suing for alleged financial losses.

Carroll allegedly made up the claim to boost sales of her 2019 biography, according to Trump, who was president from 2017 to 2021 and is currently the front-runner for the Republican candidate for president of the United States in 2024.

In a video deposition played for the jury on Wednesday, Trump denied raping Carroll.

“It’s the most ridiculous, disgusting story,” Trump said in the video, hunched over a conference table as Carroll’s lawyers presented documents to him. “It’s just made up.”

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