‘Donald Trump raped me,’ writer E. Jean Carroll testifies at civil trial

WARNING: This article contains graphic content and may affect people who have experienced sexual violence or know someone who has been affected.

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A writer suing Donald Trump took the stand on Wednesday to tell jurors that the former president was raped after he accompanied her to a department store fitting room in 1996.

“I’m here because Donald Trump raped me, and when I wrote about it, he said it didn’t happen. He lied and broke my reputation, and I’m here to try and get my life back,” he testified in the New York courtroom.

Trump denies E. Jean Carroll’s allegations. He has not attended the hearing so far, but his attorney said Tuesday that he may still decide to testify.

Carroll, 79, has said he crossed paths with Trump at the revolving door of Bergdorf Goodman on an unspecified Thursday evening in the spring of 1996. At the time, he was writing a long-running advice column in Elle magazine. Trump is a real estate magnate and social figure in New York.

He had said that he wanted advice on choosing a gift for a woman, and he left, thinking that the experience would be funny. According to Carroll, they ended up in the lingerie department, joking with each other about having to try on a bodysuit and went to the dressing room.

Then, she said, Trump slammed her against a wall, ripped off her panties and raped her as she struggled against him. He has said that he finally kneeled off her and ran away.

‘Potential liability,’ the judge said of Trump’s post

Trump, 76, said he wasn’t in the store with Carroll and didn’t know who she was when he first broke the story publicly in his 2019 memoir and accompanying magazine excerpt. In a post on his social media site Wednesday, he called the case a “manufactured hoax.”

He later called Carroll’s attorney a “political operative” and cited the DNA issue that the judge ruled could not be part of the case.

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan was not pleased by the online outburst.

“What’s happening is that your client is really trying to, of course, talk to the public that’s unquote, but, what’s more troubling, the jury in this case is talking about something that has no business,” the judge said. Trump’s lawyer.

He called Trump’s post “a public statement that, on the face of it, seems inappropriate.”

Trump attorney Joe Tacopina noted that jurors were told not to follow news or online comments about the case. But he said he would ask Trump “to avoid any further submissions on this case.”

“I wish you more success,” Kaplan said, adding that Trump “might not be bothered by a new potential source of liability.”

Loss of legal troubles

The trial comes as Trump seeks the Republican nomination for president again, and weeks after he pleaded not guilty to unrelated criminal charges over payments he made to silence a porn actor who said he had sexual relations with him.

Carroll’s federal lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and retraction of the allegedly defamatory comments.

The lawsuit was filed under a New York law that allows decades-old sexual abuse claims to go to civil courts. He never pressed criminal charges.

The judge had previously ruled that Carroll’s legal team could call to the stand two other women who were willing to testify that they were sexually assaulted by Trump, in an alleged incident spanning decades, as well as an Access Hollywood tape that featured Trump’s vulgar comments that harassed the 2016 presidential campaign. last week.

The Associated Press typically does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Carroll did.

Trump was indicted last month on 34 felony charges by the Manhattan District Attorney, the first indictment of a US president. The case involves allegations that Trump falsified business records related to cash payments made to three individuals, including porn stars Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal.

Daniels and McDougal allege an affair with Trump, which they deny.