E. Jean Carroll and Donald Trump (Photos left to right: AP Photo/John Minchillo and Emily Elconin/Getty Images)
One day after the deadline officially lapsed for the former president’s testimony, E. Jean Carroll’s attorney slammed Donald Trump on his absence from his own civil rape trial during closing arguments on Monday.
“He didn’t even bother to show up in person,” Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan told jurors.
Kaplan argued that her own client delivered three days of emotional testimony that was “credible,” “consistent,” and “powerful,” and Carroll’s legal team called 10 other people to support her case. All of them, the lawyer noted, advanced Carroll’s allegations that Trump sexually assaulted her inside the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman in the mid-1990s, likely in the spring of 1996.
By contrast, Kaplan noted, Trump called no witnesses — not even himself.
Trump’s videotaped deposition testimony was offered by Carroll’s legal team because, “In a very real sense, Donald Trump here is a witness against himself,” Kaplan said.
The attorney said that there was “good reason for that.”
“Donald Trump knows what he did,” Kaplan added.
Kaplan showed jurors a series of highlights from that deposition, starting with Trump mistaking a photograph of Carroll with a picture of his ex-wife Marla Maples. Trump only corrected himself after his attorney Alina Habba pointed out his error. When Trump recognized the gaffe, Kaplan noted: “He made up an excuse” — namely, that the photograph was supposedly “blurry.”
The photograph showed Trump, Carroll, and their then-spouses John Johnson and Ivana Trump.
This photograph of Donald Trump and E. Jean Carroll at a party was embedded in her complaint.
Showing the jurors that picture, Kaplan noted that it wasn’t blurry. The attorney noted that the mix-up was more significant in light of Trump’s initial reaction to Carroll’s rape allegations.
“Mr. Trump pointed to Ms. Carroll, the woman he supposedly said was not his ‘type,”” Kaplan noted.
When first asked about Carroll’s claims, Trump said: “She’s not my type.”
She flagged other portions of Trump’s deposition that she said helped make the plaintiff’s case. In one, Trump doubled down on his remarks in the infamous “Access Hollywood” video, in a remarkable about-face from formerly downplaying the comments as just “locker room talk.”
In Trump’s comments to Billy Bush, Kaplan said, the jury could find the former president’s “modus operandi” with Carroll and other women.
“He grabbed her by the p—-, or vagina,” Kaplan said, before adding: “I’m sorry for my language.”
“Historically, that’s true, with stars,” Trump testified.
“True that they can grab women by the p—-?” Kaplan asked.
“Well, that’s what — if you look over the last million years, I guess that’s been largely true. Not always, but largely true, unfortunately or fortunately,” Trump replied.
Kaplan latched upon the last three words of that comment.
“Who would say the word ‘fortunately’ to describe the act of sexual assault?” she asked.
On the other side of the ledger, Kaplan said, is Trump’s claim that every other witness is engaged in an elaborate “hoax” and “lie.” Invoking Trump’s post-2020 election denial, Kaplan referred to this defense as the “Big Lie.” She said that this defense asks jurors to believe that Carroll and her friends, Lisa Birnbach and Carol Martin, fabricated a story and perjured themselves to advance the allegations for political reasons.
“I’m sorry,” Kaplan said. “Seriously? That’s just ridiculous.”
Birnbach and Martin testified that Carroll told them contemporaneously that Trump “attacked” her. After Carroll described the details, Birnbach told jurors she responded to the “Ask E. Jean” columnist: “He raped you.”
Both Birnbach and Martin have independent text messages affirming that Carroll told them in 1996, Kaplan noted.
In one such series of exchanges, Martin made unguarded and unflattering remarks about Carroll’s case, describing her friend as dazzled by the “adulation” she was receiving and “in too deep.”
In the same chain, Martin referred to a “simple chat with a friend 25 years ago,” Kaplan noted.
In another chain, Birnbach wrote to Carroll: “It wasn’t political in 1996 when you told me. It was personal.”
Kaplan emphasized that these were decidedly candid messages.
“These were private texts that Carol Martin and Lisa Birnbach never expected to see the light of day.”
Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina is expected to deliver summations later in the day.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
