A New York author recently sued former President Donald Trump claiming he raped her in a department store in the 1990s. The author testified in graphic detail about the alleged assault, breaking down at times and saying she even bought bullets in fear of the blowback from her accusation.
E. Jean Carroll, a journalist and former Elle magazine advice columnist, told a jury of six men and three women in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday that she kept silent about the alleged attack in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room for decades, believing Trump would destroy her if she spoke up. That’s exactly what he tried to do when she went public in 2019, Carroll said.
“I am here because Donald Trump raped me, and when I wrote about it he said it didn’t happen,” Carroll, 79, said under questioning by her lawyer. She added: “He shattered my reputation and I’m trying to get my life back.”
Donald Trump in trouble
The jury will decide whether Trump, 76, is liable for sexually assaulting Carroll and then defaming her as recently as last year by claiming on social media that she fabricated the attack to sell a book. If they find him liable, the jurors will decide how much he must pay Carroll. The case has brought new attention to past claims about Trump’s treatment of women that failed to derail his 2016 presidential campaign, as he runs in the 2024 race.
Carroll began sobbing on the witness stand as she spoke of “finally” getting her day in court, but she stopped her lawyer from asking the judge for a break and quickly composed herself.
“This is my moment,” she said. “I’m not going to sit here and cry and waste everybody’s time.”
Trump has denied wrongdoing and argues the case is part of a broader political “witch hunt.” He says that includes his recent indictment in a case brought by the Manhattan district attorney as well as criminal probes of his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. On Wednesday morning he blasted Carroll’s lawsuit again in a social media post, calling it a “scam” and deriding his accuser as “Ms. Bergdorf Goodman.” He has said the alleged attack is clearly fabricated, given Carroll’s age and because she is not his “type.”
Carroll said Trump asked her to go to the sixth-floor lingerie department, where they eventually found a lacy bodysuit that he jokingly suggested she try on. She said she told him he should try it on instead, thinking he would put the bodysuit on over his pants.
Carroll told the jurors she agreed to go into a dressing room with him, thinking it was an amusing moment, “sort of like a Saturday Night Live sketch.”
She said Trump then “shut the door and shoved me against the wall. He shoved me so hard my head banged.”
