A former People magazine writer had testified in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation and battery case against former President Donald Trump.
It has been noted that she told the jury that Trump pushed her against a wall and began kissing her while she was visiting his Mar-a-Lago estate on assignment in 2005.
Writer drops bold allegations against Donald Trump
Carroll, who brought the lawsuit in November, alleges that Trump defamed her in a 2022 Truth Social post by calling her allegations “a Hoax and a lie” and saying “This woman is not my type!” when he denied her claim that Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s.
The former Elle magazine columnist had added a charge of battery under a recently adopted New York law that allows adult survivors of sexual abuse to sue their alleged attacker regardless of the statute of limitations. Trump has denied all allegations that he raped Carroll or defamed her.
Former People writer Natasha Stoynoff told the jury she was at Mar-a-Lago in late 2005 to write an article on Donald and Melania Trump’s first wedding anniversary, when Trump asked to show her a room in the estate.
“I followed him and we went in through these back doors and down the hall and turned right into a room,” Stoynoff said. “I’m looking around, I’m thinking, ‘Wow, really nice room,’ wondering what he wants to show me, and I hear the door shut behind me.”
Stoynoff said she had interviewed Trump on a number of occasions as part of her assignment on the “Trump beat” for People. She testified that Trump asked her into the room while Melania was changing clothes in preparation for their interview outside.
“By the time I turn around, he has my hands on my shoulders and he pushes me against the wall and he starts kissing me,” Stoynoff testified. She said that she tried to shove him away.
“He came toward me again and I tried to shove him again,” Stoynoff said. “He was kissing me and he was against me, holding my shoulder back.”
She testified that she said no words.
“I couldn’t. I tried. I was just flustered and shocked. No words came out of me,” Stoynoff told the jury.
“Did you tell him to stop?” Carroll’s attorney, Michael Ferrara, asked. “I couldn’t,” Stoynoff answered. She said the encounter ended when a butler entered the room.
Stoynoff described herself as “ashamed and humiliated at what had happened,” and testified she said nothing about it to her bosses at People because she didn’t want to cause trouble at the magazine.
