Jurors Should Dismiss Carroll’s Rape Case

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Attorneys have made opening statements in E. Jean Carroll’s rape trial against Donald Trump. Trump’s lawyer asked jurors to dismiss the case even though they “hate” Trump. Jurors remain anonymous due to the nature of the case. Loading Something is loading.

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In his opening statement defending Donald Trump in a rape trial Tuesday, attorney Joe Tacopina asked jurors to find him not responsible for battery and defamation even though they “hate” the former president.

“You can hate Donald Trump. That’s OK,” attorney Joe Tacopina told jurors. “But there’s a time and a secret place for that: It’s the ballot box.”

Tacopina’s message to the jury in a federal courthouse in downtown Manhattan followed an opening statement from Shawn Crowley, an attorney representing E. Jean Carroll in the case.

In 2019, Carroll revealed her claim that Trump raped her in a dressing room of Manhattan’s Bergdorf Goodman department store in the mid-1990s.

“She struggled to break free, but she couldn’t,” Crowley said in his opening statement. “Trump is almost twice his size.”

When Trump denied the allegations, insulted Carroll’s appearance, and called her a liar, he accused her of defamation.

Carroll filed the lawsuit, alleging defamation and battery, late last year after New York state passed a law allowing plaintiffs to bring civil sexual assault lawsuits in cases where they would be barred by the statute of limitations.

US District Judge Lewis Kaplan moved quickly to bring it to trial, despite multiple attempts from Trump’s legal team to delay the case. Carroll also has a separate defamation lawsuit, on the same claims, that has been delayed by appellate courts and remains pending.

Crowley said his team will present evidence and produce evidence that corroborates Carroll’s version of events, including testimony from friends he told at the time about the alleged rape.

Tacopina, in his own opening statement, said Carroll and his friends cooked up the story because he hated Trump’s politics and wanted to make himself more popular.

Despite being charged with the case, jurors were seated for several hours, shortly before the court’s lunch break on Tuesday. Kaplan made sure that prospective jurors were not yet familiar with the details of the case, and asked that they remain impartial while hearing the court’s testimony. The trial is expected to last about a week in general.

Kaplan made arrangements to keep jurors anonymous after expressing concern that they could face “harassment or worse” from Trump and his supporters. On Tuesday, he suggested they use fake names throughout the deliberation process to help protect their privacy. Kaplan also asked lawyers for both parties to advise their clients against “making any statements that will incite violence or civil unrest” to “try to avoid problems down the road.”

Trump did not appear in court Tuesday, and Kaplan did not ask him to appear in the case. Tacopina said he didn’t want to be “bothered” by what he says are inconsistencies in Carroll’s version of events.

“He has nothing more to add,” Tacopina said.

Tacopina said jurors will be able to see him testify through videos of depositions he took for the case. In one video, Tacopina said, jurors could observe that Trump appeared angry.

“You can see him get angry. That’s understandable he’s been falsely accused of rape,” said Tacopina.

Carroll’s team is expected to call its first witness Wednesday morning.

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