Trump did not testify in the New York rape, defamation trial

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May 7 (Reuters) – Former US President Donald Trump has not testified in a civil trial to challenge claims made by writer E. Jean Carroll that he raped her in the 1990s and later defamed her. , after letting Sunday’s deadline pass without asking the court to appear.

Trumps attorney Joseph Tacopina told the judge Thursday that Trump waived his right to testify at the trial in Manhattan federal court and decided not to present a defense in the case, gambling that jurors would find that Carroll had failed to make a persuasive case. .

In response to a Reuters request for comment, Tacopina said in a statement what Trump’s legal team said in court on Thursday, that the former president did not testify in the case.

After the jury left for the day on Thursday, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan asked Tacopina to inform Trump that he had until Sunday at 5 pm EDT (2100 GMT) to tell the court if he intended to testify.

Kaplan scheduled closing arguments from both sides for Monday. Carroll, 79, filed her lawsuit last year against Trump, 76, alleging that he raped her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in 1995 or 1996, and then defamed her by denying that this happened. The former Elle magazine advice columnist is seeking unspecified monetary damages.

Trump, who served as president from 2017 to 2021 and is currently the front-runner for the Republican US presidential nomination in 2024, said Carroll made the allegation to drive sales of his 2019 memoir.

In a video deposition played for the jury Wednesday, Trump denied raping Carroll.

“It’s the most ridiculous, disgusting story,” Trump said in the video, leaning over a conference table as Carroll’s lawyers showed him the documents. “It’s just made up.”

Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York and Hannah Lang in Washington; editing by Diane Craft

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Luc Cohen

Thomson Reuters

Reports in the federal courts of New York. Previously worked as a correspondent in Venezuela and Argentina.

Just Hannah

Thomson Reuters

Hannah Lang covers financial technology and cryptocurrency, including businesses driving the industry and policy developments governing the sector. Hannah previously worked at American Banker where she covered bank regulation and the Federal Reserve. He graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park and lives in Washington, DC.

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