Testimony ends in E. Jean Carroll lawsuit against Trump
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NEW YORK — E. Jean Carroll’s lawyers on Thursday rested their case in the civil lawsuit brought against Donald Trump, who she said raped her in a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s. Both sides in the trial rested on Thursday and are expected to deliver their closing arguments early next week, with the case then being put in the nine-member jury’s hands. Carroll sued Trump last year for battery and defamation, and she is seeking unspecified damages in the case. Trump has denied her allegations and called her a liar.
While Thursday marked the end of expected testimony in the case, Trump suggested earlier in the day that he could still wind up appearing in court and taking the stand. Trump has so far stayed away from the courtroom since the trial began, holding a political event last week and traveling to Scotland and Ireland this week to visit golf courses he owns there.
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Joe Tacopina, an attorney for Trump, said this week and again on Thursday when he formally waived Trump’s right to appear that his client would not testify in the case. Trump has no obligation to testify or appear.
But speaking from his trip on Thursday, Trump inveighed against Carroll, her lawsuit and the judge hearing the case, seeming to suggest that he would “probably attend” and “go back and ... confront” Carroll. It was unclear whether Trump will appear in court, and Tacopina on Thursday did not seem to suggest his client will do so.
U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who is overseeing the case, said at the end of the court session Thursday that while Trump has already said he would not appear, the judge would give him until late Sunday afternoon to say whether he wants to change his mind. Kaplan did not say whether Trump would be allowed to reverse course, but said he was providing the option given Trump’s remarks from abroad.
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Even as Trump remained outside the courtroom, his side of the case was heard when portions of his deposition were played for jurors on Wednesday and Thursday. Trump was deposed in the case last year, and Carroll’s attorneys have said they did not need him to testify since they could play some of those recordings.
In the recordings played in court, Trump could be heard reiterating his previous comments denigrating Carroll’s physical appearance — effectively suggesting that he could not have assaulted Carroll, now 79, because he finds her unattractive.
“I saw a photo of her,” Trump, who is 76, said about his accuser in the sworn interview that was videotaped in October. “And the only difference between me and other people is that I’m honest.”
Trump, who sat slumped in his chair and glanced down throughout the deposition footage, also insulted Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, who was conducting the inquiry. Roberta Kaplan is not related to the judge.
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Previously released portions of the deposition showed that Trump also mistook a photograph of Carroll for his ex-wife Marla Maples.
“That’s Marla, yeah,” he said during the deposition. “That’s my wife.” His attorney quickly corrected him.
Carroll first publicly accused Trump in 2019, during his presidency, saying that they bumped into each other in the mid-1990s at Bergdorf Goodman, the department store. When they ended up inside a dressing room, Carroll alleged, Trump attacked her, shoving his fingers and then penis inside her vagina. Carroll said she was able to escape and flee after kneeing him.
Trump has said this encounter never occurred, denied knowing Carroll, and said she was making the accusation to try to sell books.
The final witnesses Carroll’s side summoned in court included Carol Martin, a journalist and longtime friend of Carroll’s. According to Carroll, after the attack she told Martin and one other person, then remained silent for decades, only deciding to speak up when she included the accusation in a 2019 memoir.
Carroll’s defense also called Ashlee Humphreys, an expert who said it would cost up to $2.7 million to conduct a reputation repair campaign for Carroll and Natasha Stoynoff, another Trump accuser who said Trump forced himself on her at Mar-a-Lago when she was there to report a People magazine story in 2005. Stoynoff testified in the trial on Wednesday.
Trump’s attorneys have reiterated what their client has said, describing Carroll as a stranger to him and saying her story is a fabrication.
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During his opening statement last week, Tacopina said his case would derive from the cross-examination of the people Carroll’s side called to the stand.
“Why is that so?” the lawyer said. “Because it did not happen, because there are no witnesses to call to prove a negative.”
Carroll’s lawsuit went to trial in Manhattan amid a spate of investigations and other legal threats facing Trump, who is running for president again.
Dueling protests form outside New York DA's office on April 4, ahead of former president Donald Trump's arraignment. (Video: Jessica Koscielniak/The Washington Post)
In April, Trump was indicted in Manhattan and charged with 34 felony counts in connection with payments made to keep an adult-film actress from speaking out during the 2016 presidential election about her allegations of an affair with him years earlier.
On Thursday, his lawyers filed a notice of removal of the state-level case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to federal court, arguing that the case involves federal election law and that Trump was in office when he allegedly concealed the nature of reimbursements to his former fixer Michael Cohen.
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A spokesperson for Bragg said the district attorney was reviewing the bid and will respond in court.
New York’s attorney general also has filed a civil lawsuit against Trump, three of his adult children and his namesake company, alleging widespread fraud.
The Justice Department is investigating Trump’s handling of classified material after he left office, along with his efforts to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election. A Georgia prosecutor is also looking into whether Trump and his allies broke the law in seeking to overturn his 2020 loss in that state; she has said charging decisions in the case will be announced this summer.
Trump has denied wrongdoing in all of these matters and insisted that the scrutiny is politically motivated.
Berman reported from Washington.
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Source: The Washington Post
