E. Jean Carroll undergoes intense cross-examination in battery, defamation case against Donald Trump

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NEW YORK CITY — Donald Trump’s lawyer began grilling writer E. Jean Carroll in court Thursday about a 1990s encounter in a Manhattan department store that she says ended with Trump raping her — a account he identified contained some details that were “difficult to imagine.”

Attorney Joseph Tacopina joined Carroll’s cross-examination in a civil trial in New York, questioning the validity of his bomb claims while suggesting he only came to them decades later, in 2019 , because of his disdain for Trump’s politics and because he wants to sell. copies of his book.

Tacopina annoyed Carroll by using the word “allegedly” to cast doubt on her rape claim, earning an immediate and stern rebuke from the writer.

“Not supposedly. I was raped,” she said.

“That’s your version, Ms. Carroll, that you were raped,” Tacopina said.

“Those are the facts,” he replied.

Tacopina vowed to look further into Carroll’s alleged encounter with Trump, in a dressing room at luxury retailer Bergdorf Goodman, which could result in days of cross-examination.

Carroll, 79, began testifying Wednesday and, under questioning from his own attorney, told jurors how a chance encounter with Trump at the store in spring 1996 turned into a violent sexual assault from flirty antics in the lingerie part.

Carroll said Trump slammed her against a wall, pulled down her pantyhose and raped her before she got down on her knees and fled. She never pursued criminal charges and said she would have kept the accusation forever if not for the #MeToo movement, which empowered women to speak out after sexual assault claims against former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein in 2017.

The allegations against Weinstein surfaced on the same day Carroll said she was embarking on a reporting journey for her book, which she originally envisioned as a tribute to women who stand up to misbehavior. man The cultural shift changed the thesis of her book and eventually forced her to reveal what she said Trump did to her, she said.

“I was flummoxed,” Carroll testified Thursday. He said he thought, “Wait a minute, can we talk and not be angry?”

“The light shines,” he said. The groundswell of women speaking out about sexual assault “made me realize that staying silent doesn’t work, that if we speak up we have a chance to limit the damage.”

Trump, 76, has repeatedly claimed the encounter never happened, that he didn’t know Carroll and that he didn’t “type” her — comments that are at the heart of the defamation claims in the lawsuit by Carroll.

Trump, who is scheduled to hold a campaign event Thursday in Manchester, New Hampshire, is not expected to appear at the trial. Jurors are expected to see portions of a videotaped deposition he gave in the case.

Carroll’s lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and a recovery for what she says are Trump’s defamatory comments. She testified that she was going after Trump “because Donald Trump raped me, and when I wrote it, he said it didn’t happen.”

Thursday’s court session began late after lawyers crowded the judge in chambers, discussing legal issues that were not immediately disclosed.

On Wednesday, Trump launched a counterattack against the trial on social media, telling followers on his Truth Social platform that the case was “a manufactured SCAM” and that his lawyer was a political operative.

The outburst drew a rebuke and warning from Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who called it “completely inappropriate.”

“What appears to be the case is that your client is generally endeavoring to speak to his ‘public,’ but, more disturbingly, to the jury in this case about matters of no business,” the judge said.

After Tacopina promised to talk to Trump and ask him not to make further posts, Kaplan warned: “We’re going to enter a place, where, where your client may or may not be involved in a new source of potential liability.”

Later, Kaplan again warned Tacopina to talk to Trump after the former president’s son Eric tweeted criticism of Carroll’s attorney funding received from a wealthy Democratic contributor.

The trial results from a lawsuit Carroll filed in November after New York state passed a law allowing adult victims of sexual assault to sue their attackers even if the -attack happened decades ago.

The lawsuit contains one claim directly related to the alleged rape and a second claim stemming from statements Trump made about Carroll’s claims in October.

Carroll testified that writing about her encounter with Trump in a 2019 memoir led to her firing from Elle magazine, where she worked as an advice columnist for 27 years, and even brought her death threats , which led him to buy ammunition for a gun he owned. .

He said Thursday that a look at social media as the trial began revealed new insults against him as people called him a “liar, whore, ugly, old man.”

“But I couldn’t be prouder to be here,” he testified.

The Associated Press typically does not name people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they go public, as Carroll did.

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