Then-President Donald Trump is seen silhouetted in the back seat of his presidential limo, known as the Beast. (Photo by Yichuan Cao/Sipa USA via AP Images)
Former President Donald Trump declined to attend the start of his own trial accusing him of raping author E. Jean Carroll in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman in the mid-1990s.
As jury selection started on Tuesday, Carroll — as promised — sat at the plaintiff’s table with her legal team, led by her attorney Roberta Kaplan. But the former president was nowhere to be found at the defense table, where his team is led by Joseph Tacopina.
Before trial, Tacopina didn’t tip his hand in legal filings about whether his client would attend court on any date, but he asked the judge to instruct the jury that he may skip trial to spare New Yorkers the logistical burdens that come with a visit from a former president.
Last week, Senior U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected that request.
“Mr. Trump is free to attend, to testify, or both. He is free also to do none of those things,” Kaplan wrote in a one-page order at the time.
However, the judge added, Trump’s attorney should make “no reference” to his “alleged desire to testify” or to the “burdens that any absence on his part allegedly might spare, or might have spared, the Court or the City of New York.”
Judge Kaplan initially ordered the parties to reveal if and when they would show up in court, but his open-ended ruling about whether Trump could attend gave Tacopina leeway to avoid such a disclosure before trial time. In a civil trial, a defendant typically has no obligation to appear unless compelled to do so by a subpoena. Carroll’s legal team indicated that they plan to show a jury portions of Trump’s deposition, suggesting that they have no need for the former president’s live testimony.
Former federal prosecutor Jennifer Rodgers, who is also a CNN legal analyst, believes that that decision could be risky for Trump.
“It’s the first litigation of a sexual assault allegation against Trump – despite many such allegations over the years – and he appears to have decided to sit it out. I think this is a big risk, as it may read as arrogance to the jury, and it also limits the options of his lawyers in trying to present his case,” noted Rodgers.
At least 26 women publicly accused Trump of some form of sexual misconduct, ranging from unwanted kisses to sexual assault and rape.
Carroll’s trial will illustrate the spectrum of those allegations. Two other accusers, businesswoman Jessica Leeds and People magazine writer Natasha Stoynoff, will both tell a jury that Trump groped them, after the judge found their anticipated testimony admissible. Carroll also received permission to show jurors the “Access Hollywood” video that nearly derailed Trump’s 2016 campaign, showing the then-real estate mogul boasting about grabbing women “by the p—-.”
Judge Kaplan is expected to select an anonymous jury during his own voir dire, before opening statements begin.
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