The defense of the writer and former journalist E. Jean Carroll accused Donald Trump on Tuesday of having raped her in the 1990s, at the beginning of the trial in which the magnate’s lawyers described her as a storyteller avid for money and fame.
More than 25 years after the events, 9 jurors will have to opt for one of the two opposing versions at the end of one or two weeks of a media trial for Trump, who at 76 is in the middle of a campaign to get back to the House Blanca in the 2024 elections.
“Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in a fitting room at Bergdorf Goodman”, a luxurious store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, after meeting at the entrance to the building, said one of the prosecution’s lawyers, Shawn Crowley.
According to Carroll, 79, the rape occurred after Trump asked her opinion on buying a gift of women’s lingerie.
“The moment they were inside (the changing room) everything changed. Suddenly it stopped being fun.” “Trump was almost twice as big as she was,” the lawyer told the jury.
According to her, the former journalist kept silent for 20 years for fear that a powerful man could destroy her reputation, but in the wake of the movement
During the initial arguments, the lawyer admitted that the plaintiff does not exactly remember the date, which she places in the spring of 1996, and that there were no witnesses. But she announced that two friends, to whom the then journalist told what happened to her, will come to corroborate the story.
When the writer made these facts public, the then president of the United States replied that he did not know her, nor “was her type” and called her a “total lie.”
For the lawyer of the tycoon Joe Tacopina it is an “affront to justice.” “She is abusing the system for money, political reasons and status,” he concluded.
Initially, Carroll sued Trump in 2019 only for defamation since the alleged violation had prescribed.
But on November 24, 2022, a law came into force in the state of New York (“Adult Survivors Act”) that allows, for one year, victims of sexual assault to file lawsuits in civil justice.
As a result of that law, Carroll’s defense filed a new lawsuit against Trump for “groping, groping and raping her.”
It also includes smear for a post on her Truth Social network in October denying the rape allegations and calling Carroll a “complete scam.”
Carroll seeks damages for “significant pain and suffering, lasting psychological and pecuniary damages, loss of dignity and self-esteem, and invasion of privacy.” And to Trump to retract his comments.
About a dozen women have accused the mogul of sexual misconduct. He has always denied the accusations and has never had to sit on the bench for it.
The Carroll case will not result in criminal proceedings, but if Trump loses it will be the first time he has been held legally responsible for a sexual assault accusation.
The former president, who has testified under oath in the case, is not expected to attend the trial.
Trump was criminally charged at the beginning of April for 34 crimes for the alleged black payment of money to buy the silence of the porn actress Stormy Daniels in the final stretch of the 2016 electoral campaign for an alleged relationship maintained a decade before the tycoon has always denied
The Republican is also being investigated for trying to reverse his 2020 election loss in the southern state of Georgia, his alleged mishandling of classified documents taken from the White House and his involvement in the assault on the United States Capitol on September 6. January 2021.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
