Former President Donald Trump's second trial against former magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll will be limited to damages only, a judge ruled Wednesday in a partial summary judgment.

Carroll, 79, alleges Trump defamed her by denying in June 2019 that he raped her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. He previously lost in civil court earlier this year after a jury found him liable for sexual abuse and thus found his separate October 2022 comments constituted defamation.

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Judge Lewis Kaplan of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan said a May jury verdict giving Carroll $5 million after Trump defamed her in a 2022 social media post meant that his separate 2019 statements were made with "actual malice," meaning the only question left is how much he should pay in damages.

“The jury found that Mr. Trump knew that his statement that Ms. Carroll lied about him sexually assaulting her for improper and ulterior purposes was false or that he acted with reckless disregard to whether it was false," Kaplan wrote. "Whether Mr. Trump made the 2019 statements with actual malice raises the same issue.”

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Kaplan's ruling means the trial is only needed to consider how much Trump owes the former Elle magazine columnist in damages. Carroll is seeking more than $10 million in damages.

The trial will commence in New York on Jan. 15, 2024, marking the same day as the Iowa Republican caucuses, as Trump, 77, attempts to lead the Republican Party against President Joe Biden in the November general election.