Joe Tacopina, lawyer of former U.S. President Donald Trump, questions former Elle journal recommendation columnist E. Jean Carroll earlier than U.S. District Choose Lewis Kaplan as Carroll’s deposition performs on a monitor, throughout a civil trial the place Carroll accuses the previous U.S. president in a civil lawsuit of raping her in a division retailer dressing room within the mid-Nineteen Nineties, and of defamation, in New York, Could 1, 2023 on this courtroom sketch.
Jane Rosenberg | Reuters
A lawyer for former President Donald Trump mentioned Wednesday mentioned he won’t current any witnesses at his civil trial for a lawsuit accusing him of raping the author E. Jean Carroll within the mid-Nineteen Nineties and defaming her final fall when he once more denied her declare.
Trump’s legal professional Joseph Tacopina advised Choose Lewis Kaplan that the one professional witness he deliberate to name to the witness stand is unable to testify because of a well being concern.
On Tuesday, Tacopina mentioned the 76-year-old Trump wouldn’t testify earlier than the jury in U.S. District Court docket in Manhattan. Trump has not appeared in that court docket for the reason that trial started final week.
However the presumptive frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination was in Scotland on Monday to interrupt floor for a brand new golf course.
A videotape of Trump’s deposition for the case is perhaps performed later Wednesday for jurors.
That tape consists of footage from the so-called “Entry Hollywood” tape, during which Trump bragged to that present’s then-host Billy Bush about groping and kissing ladies with out their consent.
“I am routinely drawn to stunning ladies — I simply begin kissing them, it is like a magnet. Simply kiss. I do not even wait,” Trump says on that tape, recorded in 2005 when he was taping a phase of the tv present “Entry Hollywood.”
“And if you’re a star, they allow you to do it. You are able to do something. “Seize ’em by the p—-,” Trump mentioned.
Carroll’s sister, Cande Carroll, was because of take the witness stand, adopted by Natasha Stoynoff, who claims Trump assaulted her at his Mar-a-Lago membership in Palm Seashore, Florida, in 2005.
Kaplan advised jurors Wednesday that they may begin deliberations within the case subsequent week.
Carroll’s attorneys count on to relaxation their case on Thursday.
Carroll, 79, alleges that Trump raped her in a dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman division retailer in Manhattan after an opportunity encounter with him there.
He has denied raping her, and even being within the retailer along with her that date. Trump has additionally mentioned he wouldn’t have even had consensual intercourse along with her as a result of she was not his “sort.”
Nonetheless, throughout questioning underneath oath by Carroll’s lawyer for his deposition, Trump mistook Carroll for his former spouse Marla Maples in a photograph that reveals Carroll and her then-husband John Johnson with Trump and his then-wife Ivana Trump.
From L-R: Donald Trump, E. Jean Carroll, John Johnson and Ivana Trump at an NBC celebration, late Nineteen Eighties.
Supply: U.S. District Court docket in Manhattan
Carroll’s lawsuit claims battery by Trump for the alleged rape.
The felony statute of limitations for rape has lengthy handed, however a not too long ago enacted New York state regulation permits adults alleging sexual misconduct to file civil claims inside a one-year window if these claims in any other case are barred by the statute of limitations.
