‘I’m here because Donald Trump raped me,’ Carroll testified in the civil trial against the former president

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NEW YORK CITY — Testimony began Wednesday in the civil defamation and battery trial of former President Trump, who is accused of raping a woman in a department store dressing room nearly 30 years ago.

E. Jean Carroll testified about the alleged encounter that her attorney said “lasted only a few minutes” but stayed with Carroll forever.

“I’m here because Donald Trump raped me. And when I wrote about it he said it didn’t happen. He lied and ruined my reputation. And I’m here to try to get my life back,” Carroll said as he began bear witness

Carroll said he first met Donald Trump in 1987 either at a “Saturday Night Live” party or at an ABC party. He testified to a photo showing Trump, Carroll, his then-husband John Johnson and Ivana Trump from that encounter.

This image will also appear in the next test. When Trump was shown this during a deposition, he pointed to Carroll and said “Marla, yes, Marla, my wife,” according to Carroll’s attorney Shawn Crowley, perhaps believing Trump’s assertion that Carroll is “not my type.”

Asked by her attorney Mike Ferrara if she found Trump attractive, Carroll said yes. “He is very personable,” she said.

Carroll struggled to determine the timeframe for the alleged rape at Bergdorf Goodman.

“When did you believe Donald Trump hurt you?” Ferrara asked.

“This question, the when, the when, the date, is something I keep trying to pin down,” Carroll said.

At first he said he thought it was 1994 or 1995 but then said his friend Lisa Birnbach published an article about Trump for New York magazine in February 1996.

“Lisa would never come down to Mar-a-Lago…if she knew what Donald Trump did to me,” Carroll said, leading him to believe the alleged assault took place in 1996.

“I’ve always thought it was a Thursday. I didn’t say it was a Thursday because I wasn’t 100% certain. As I sit here now I’m not 100% sure but I think it was a Thursday night,” he testified said Carroll.

“Are you sure, Ms. Carroll?” Ferrara asked.

“I feel sure but I can’t say 100% sure,” Carroll replied.

In his opening statement, Crowley suggested that the lack of specificity was unimportant.

“While Ms. Carroll does not remember exactly when it happened, she remembers almost every detail of what happened, and her testimony alone is enough for you to find Donald Trump liable in this case,” Crowley said. .

The defense told the jury those details were important.

“She can’t tell you the date she claims she was raped. She can’t tell you the month she claims she was raped. She can’t tell you the time. She can’t even tell you the year she claims she was raped by Donald Trump,” defense attorney Joe Tacopina said in an opening statement.

Two other women are expected to testify later in the trial that Trump sexually assaulted them as well, which is meant to reflect a pattern of behavior that Trump denies.

“Three women, one clear pattern,” Carroll’s attorney Shawn Crowley told jurors in opening statements.

It remains unclear whether Trump will testify. Judge Lewis Kaplan asked to find out this week, telling the defense it was time to “fish or cut bait.”

Earlier Wednesday, before the jury entered the courtroom, Carroll’s attorney read aloud portions of two social media posts by Donald Trump that the plaintiff’s attorney said violated the judge’s orders.

On Truth Social, Trump posted that Carroll’s legal team was “funded by a big political donor they said didn’t exist, only to get caught lying about it.”

She also posted “She said there was a dress, using ol’ Monica Lewinsky ‘stuff,’ then she didn’t want to produce it.”

Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said the posts violated court orders against “comments about lawyers and one about DNA.”

Defense attorney Joe Tacopina said “These were clearly comments outside of court” but the judge cut him off, saying “Where for two years he refused to give a DNA sample and now he wants it in the case.”

“What you’re trying to do is walk away from a statement by your client, a public statement, that on its face seems completely inappropriate,” Kaplan told Tacopina

Tacopina said she would address the posts to Trump.

“I will speak to my client and ask him to refrain from any posts about this case,” Tacopina said.

Kaplan said he hopes the attorney is successful.

“We’re entering an area where your client may or may not be dealing with a new source of potential liability and I think you know what I mean,” Kaplan said.

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