Donald Trump’s has ranted on Truth Social that E Jean Carroll’s defamation case against him is a “made up and disgusting hoax” after complaining that it is he who deserves compensation for reputational damage, not her.

       The former Elle magazine columnist accused the Republican in 2019 of sexually assaulting her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s, for which Mr Trump was found liable last year.

       She is now suing him again over his denial that the incident ever took place.

       “I’m here because I was assaulted by Donald Trump and when I wrote about it, he said it never happened. He lied. And he shattered my reputation,” Ms Carroll testified in New York on Wednesday.

       Judge Lewis Kaplan at one point threatened to remove Mr Trump from court yesterday for commenting as she spoke, to which the presidential candidate responded bitterly: “I would love it.”

       Ms Carroll will return to the stand on Thursday as the trial resumes without Mr Trump in attendance, after he returned to Florida for his mother-in-law’s funeral following a short stop-over for a rally appearance in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, last night ahead of next week’s primary.