According to Reuters, On May 1st, 2023, in Manhattan federal court, E. Jean Carroll denied making up her claims that President Donald Trump raped and defamed her in order to drive publicity for her memoir. The writer spoke after the judge denied Trump’s request for a mistrial. Carroll made it clear that she was not seeking attention through appearances on TV and podcasts, although she acknowledged that they were an important driver of book sales.
Carroll also revealed that she hides her inner suffering in her role as an advice columnist. She added that attending parties related to her lawsuits against Trump and stating publicly that she was doing “fabulous” didn’t mean she was lying about him. She emphasized, “In this courtroom, I’m being forced to tell the truth.” This statement was made to Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, on her second day undergoing cross-examination.
Carroll, who is now 79 years old, has accused Trump, who is 76, of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in late 1995 or early 1996. She has also accused him of undermining her credibility and career by lying about it online. Her defamation claim is in relation to an October 2022 post on Trump’s Truth Social platform, where he called the former Elle magazine advice columnist’s case a “complete con job” and “a Hoax and a lie.” Carroll used to write for Elle magazine and is now at Substack.
The rape claim was included in her memoir, “What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal,” excerpts of which were published in New York magazine in June 2019. Carroll is seeking unspecified damages in her civil lawsuit. She is also suing Trump separately for defamation after he denied her claims, using similar language, after the book excerpts were published.
Trump, who is currently leading the Republican field in the 2024 presidential race, has not attended the trial, now in its fourth day. On Monday, he was in Scotland for a short trip to visit his golf courses there, with plans to visit another course in Ireland.
Trump’s lawyer, Tacopina, sent an 18-page letter early on Monday accusing U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan of bias against Trump, in seeking a mistrial. Tacopina said that the effect of several “unfair and prejudicial” rulings by Kaplan “manifests a deeper leaning towards one party over another,” including comments where the judge “openly expresses favoritism.” Tacopina said that Kaplan, an appointee of Democratic President Bill Clinton, should have let him question Carroll about why she did not seek security camera footage of the alleged rape.
Tacopina also challenged Kaplan’s statement that Trump might be “sailing in harm’s way” after his son Eric Trump discussed on Twitter how LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman was helping fund Carroll’s case. Kaplan ruled last Wednesday that Trump’s lawyers could not mention Hoffman at the trial, calling it “unfairly prejudicial.” Requests for mistrials are often long shots, though they often form a basis for eventual appeals.
Because Carroll’s case is civil, she must establish her claims by a preponderance of the evidence, meaning more likely than not, and need not meet the tougher criminal standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Carroll had told jurors last Wednesday that Trump put his fingers into her vagina, which she called “extremely painful, extremely painful,” and then inserted his penis.
In Monday’s cross-examination, Tacopina questioned why Carroll did not contact the police after encountering Trump, despite telling her readers they should if they believed they were crime victims. Carroll responded that she was ashamed of what happened and thought it was her fault. Tacopina also asked why Carroll did
