The defence has just announced Trump is the next witness.

The judge seems to be laying out some ground rules. We'll bring you more when we have it.

Nada Tawfik
Reporting from court in New York

Image source, Jane Rosenberg, Reuters

As we wait for court to resume, here's some more from this morning.

The defence’s first witness was E Jean Carroll’s long-time friend and a former CBS anchor, Carol Martin. She was also one of two people that Carroll confided in after Trump attacked her, undermining his claim that it was all made up to sell her memoir.

But Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba sought to use Martin's testimony to paint Carroll as someone who liked attention and benefited from it.

She zeroed in on Martin’s text messages from when Carroll brought her lawsuit, including one where she called her “a drug addict, and the drug is herself".

Then she asked Martin if her friend was enjoying the fame to some extent. Martin responded that “enjoying” was a multi-faceted word.

Martin insisted her messages were hyperbole - and under cross-examination from E Jean Carroll’s lawyers, she said she had no doubt that all her friend wanted was to have her day in court.

There is no video feed of today's proceedings but we've had these sketches from inside the courtroom in New York, courtesy of artist Jane Rosenberg.

Court is about to resume. We still don't know if Trump will testify - but stick with us for updates.

Image source, Jane Rosenberg, Reuters

Image source, Jane Rosenberg, Reuters

Image source, Jane Rosenberg, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Someone the court has heard from a fair bit this morning is lawyer Alina Habba, 39, who rose from a little-known litigator to representing the former president of the United States in some of his most personally perilous cases.

A New Jersey native, she was born to two Chaldean Catholics who fled persecution in Iraq in the early 1980s.

After graduating from university, she took a job in the fashion industry, working at Marc Jacobs - one of America's premier brands.

Habba briefly served as a clerk for then-New Jersey Superior Court Judge Eugene Codey Jr, before entering private practice, where she worked for several years before starting her own firm in 2020.

Then enter Donald Trump. The mother-of-three joined his legal team in 2021 after reportedly meeting him at his country club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where her law firm is also based.

More about Habba here..

The court is now taking a break, but will be back in about 20 minutes.

We're still not sure if Trump will testify - but will bring you any updates as we hear.

Brandon Livesay
Reporting from court in New York

Carol Martin - the defence's first witness - is still on the witness stand, with E Jean Carroll's legal team now asking her questions.

It's been hard to get any flow going to the questioning, and it feels like watching a football game with a whistle-happy referee constantly stopping play.

Trump's lawyer Alina Habba repeatedly objects to questions, and for the most part the judge is agreeing with her.

The line of questioning continues to be about text messages Martin had sent various people that mentioned Caroll.

One such message in 2019 mentioned her being suspicious of Carroll's motives - but Martin says she "misused words" and was not suspicious of her friend of 30 years.

Alina Habba, one of the defence attorneys, has ended her questioning of journalist Carol Martin.

Carroll's team will ask questions of the reporter next.

It remains unclear whether Donald Trump himself will take the stand later today.

Chloe Kim
Reporting from court

Trump's defence team are seeking to challenge Carroll's motivations, implying that the columnist enjoyed the public attention that came with her allegations.

Habba referenced many texts from Martin to Carroll that alluded to the former journalist as enjoying the attention she's received from her public feud with Trump.

Martin said her text messages were simply “hyperbolic".

It's an argument we've heard before from Trump's lawyers, that instead of being defamed she's been financially uplifted by the confrontation.

Brandon Livesay
Reporting from court in New York

Image source, Getty Images

The relationship between Donald Trump's lawyer Alina Habba and the judge could best be described as prickly.

They have repeatedly clashed and exchanged terse words.

At one point they had a back and forth about how she phrased a question which led to the judge saying: "I'm trying to help counsel ask what I think she's trying to ask."But the exchange ended with more confusion, with the witness, Carol Martin, finally asking "what was the question again?"

Brandon Livesay
Reporting from court in New York

Trump's lawyer Alina Habba is questioning the defence's first witness, Carol Martin.

Her line of questioning has focused on portraying E Jean Carroll as benefiting from media attention.

Habba brings up old text messages sent by Martin in which said she was "suspicious" of Carroll's motives.

Martin says the texts were a "bad choice of words on my part".

When Carol Martin testified under oath in E Jean Carroll's defamation and sexual abuse case last May, she told the court she remembered the former columnist confiding in her after the assault, but she couldn't recall when.

Martin said the conversation happened while she and Carroll were working at the same cable network sometime between 1994 and 1996.

Martin recalled the hour-long conversation in her apartment's kitchen where Carroll entered "frenzied" before later telling her: "Trump attacked me."

A judge in the case found Donald Trump liable for sexual assault and defamation, and Carroll was awarded $5m (£3.9m).

Chloe Kim
Reporting from court

Court is back in session and Trump's lawyers say they will call their first witness, Carol Martin.

She is a journalist and TV news anchor who testified in support of Carroll last year.

Nada Tawfik
Reporting from New York

Donald Trump will be taking a major risk if he testifies, legally speaking, if what he says undermines his credibility or if he makes statements that are untrue.

For example, if Trump repeats his public claims that he does not know E Jean Carroll and that her whole story is fabricated, while under oath, then according to law professor Carl Tobias, Carroll’s lawyer could accuse him of perjuring himself right there in open court. This could also happen later in filed paperwork.

Carroll has on her side the fact that a jury already found in the spring that he sexually assaulted and defamed the former advice columnist.

If the judge rules in her favour, that could leave Trump theoretically open to fines or up to five years in prison for perjury.

The other risk is his testimony leads to additional damages.

If the jury sees that he is continuing to defame her, they may decide to make an example out of him when deciding punitive damages, with the sky as the limit.

E Jean Carroll's legal team is about to finish their case, but the court has taken a short break first.

A few minutes ago they played videos to the court, one where Trump spoke about his personal wealth.

Carroll’s team says Trump’s side has two witnesses. Trump appears to be one of them, so we may hear from the former president shortly.

Court is under way in New York now and E Jean Carroll's former boss, Robbie Myers, has taken the stand.

The former Elle magazine editor described Carroll as a "truth teller".

When asked, Myers told the court she was a registered Democrat and hadn't voted for Trump.

She also recounted meeting Donald Trump in 2012 or 2013 while they were both filming The Celebrity Apprentice. She said he was "kind and friendly" and showed her around his offices during downtime.

We're still not sure yet if Trump is going to testify today, but he has previously indicated that he would in this case.

In a letter to Judge Lewis A. Kaplan earlier this month, Trump's lawyer, Alina Habba, said he should be allowed to testify.

In the document, she criticised a previous letter submitted to the court from E Jean Carroll's team, saying it wasn't their job to decide whether Trump could offer any "valuable, admissible evidence in his defence".

Habba went on to say that Donald Trump "should be allowed to testify about the circumstances surrounding his statements", specifically about questions asked by reporters - which she says led to his denial of Carroll's story.

"President Trump can testify about his state of mind, the timing of the statements, and his mitigation or correction of any statements," she added.

Donald Trump and E Jean Carroll are both in the same courtroom today. Earlier, we saw Carroll arrive at the New York Court.

And Trump and his lawyer Alina Habba were photographed outside Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan this morning before they left for court downtown.

There's no camera inside the courtroom today, but we will likely get some artist sketches that show what it's like in there.

Image source, EPA

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

The trial was meant to resume on Monday, and both Trump and Carroll turned up at court ready - but it was postponed because of a sick juror.

The juror said they felt unwell as they headed to court, and then Alina Habba, one of Donald Trump's lawyers, said she had a fever.

Her parents - who she had dinner with three days prior - had tested positive to the coronavirus.

But Habba said despite her fever, she tested negative on Monday morning.

Trump has already been found to have made defamatory comments - the jury now needs to decide how much money he must pay E Jean Carroll in compensation.

Carroll is seeking $10m (£7.7m) - which is more than she asked for in her last defamation case against Trump - she was awarded $5m then.

She wants more money this time because she argues his comments as a sitting president hurt her more.

Shawn Crowley, one of Carroll's attorneys, said last week the jury would need to consider "how much money Donald Trump should have to pay for what he's done" - and "how much money will it take to make him stop".

Brandon Livesay
Reporting from the courtroom in New York

Image source, Reuters

It's a rainy and gloomy day here in New York, where Donald Trump will appear in court soon for his civil defamation case.

Trump is being sued by the fashion writer E Jean Carroll for defamatory comments.

Last year, a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in the 1990s and awarded her $5m (£3.9).

The current case focuses on different remarks - which the judge has already ruled were defamatory - that Trump made while he was president in 2019, when he called her allegation "totally false".

This new jury will now focus on how much Trump must pay in damages.

Carroll's legal team is expected to wrap up their part of the case this morning, and we could possibly hear Trump testify later. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.

Stick with us.

Image source, Getty Images