Trump ‘swears on his children’ he has not met E Jean Carroll as he attacks author after sex abuse verdict

A defiant former president Donald Trump on Wednesday told a CNN town hall audience that he has never met the woman who a New York jury said he sexually assaulted in a department store dressing room in the 1990s.

Asked about the civil verdict against him in a civil suit brought by writer E Jean Carroll, Mr Trump claimed the former Elle advice columnist’s lawsuit was “election interference” and denied knowing her.

“This woman I don’t know her. I never met her. I have no idea who she is,” he said in response to the query from moderator Kaitlan Collins.

Mr Trump asked Collins if he could “swear by [his] children that he never assaulted Ms Carroll and called her allegations “a fake...made up story”.

He also attacked the federal judge who oversaw the case, Lewis Kaplan, as “a horrible Clinton-appointed judge” who allowed Ms Carroll to “put everything in” as evidence over the objections of his legal team.

“He allowed her to put everything in. He allowed us to put nothing,” he said.