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Attorneys for E Jean Carroll described Donald Trump as a \u201cwitness against himself\u201d in closing arguments at the civil rape trial against the former president, whose defence was slammed as \u201charebrained\u201d by a lawyer representing the 79-year-old writer. <\/p>\n
Lawyer Roberta Kaplan began her closing on Monday in Manhattan court by calling Ms Carroll\u2019s testimony \u201ccredible,\u201d \u201cconsistent,\u201d and \u201cpowerful,\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cYou saw for yourself. E Jean Carroll wasn\u2019t hiding anything,\u201d Ms Kaplan told the jury. <\/p>\n
Ms Carroll sued Mr Trump in 2019 and 2022, claiming that he raped her in a fitting room at the Berghof Goodman department store in Manhattan in the mid-1990s. She argues that he later defamed her in his aggressive rejections of her claims. Mr Trump has denied all wrongdoing. <\/p>\n
While Mr Trump himself declined to testify at the trial – or to attend at all – Ms Kaplan seized on his October video deposition in the case to crush his credibility. <\/p>\n
She pointed to the moment Mr Trump mixed up Ms Carroll and his then-wife Marla Maples in a photo, saying he \u201cpointed to Ms Carroll, the woman he supposedly said was not his type\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe only corrected himself when his own lawyer\u201d corrected him, she added.<\/p>\n
Mr Trump \u201cdid [what] he always does\u201d when caught doing something wrong, Ms Kaplan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe made up an excuse,\u201d claiming that it was \u201cblurry,\u201d the lawyer added.<\/p>\n
Referencing the infamous Access Hollywood tape that emerged just before the 2016 election, Ms Kaplan said, \u201cHe grabbed her, using his words, \u2018by the p****.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn\u2019t even bother to show up in person,\u201d Ms Kaplan said about Mr Trump choosing not to attend the trial.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a very real sense, Trump is a witness against himself,\u201d the attorney said about Mr Trump\u2019s video deposition.<\/p>\n
She said Mr Trump \u201cknows what he did. He knows he sexually assaulted E Jean Carroll\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ms Kaplan laid out a timeline of the alleged attack during her closing argument, saying that it happened while Ms Carroll was hosting Ask E Jean on America\u2019s Talking between 1994 and 1996.<\/p>\n
America\u2019s Talking was run by Roger Ailes, who later served as the CEO and chairman of Fox News before he was ousted following a series of sexual misconduct allegations against him.<\/p>\n
Ms Kaplan noted that at the time of the alleged rape by Mr Trump, Ms Carroll was wearing a wool dress with tights, but she wasn\u2019t wearing a coat, indicating what kind of weather there was on that day, according to Law & Crime.<\/p>\n
Ms Carroll said that it must have taken place after her friend Lisa Birnbach had published her story on Mar-a-Lago, published in February of 1996.<\/p>\n
The writer said she thinks it happened on a Thursday as the department store was open late.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was trying to come to grips with the fact that she was being attacked,\u201d Ms Kaplan said during her closing argument on Monday.<\/p>\n
The lawyer noted that her client remembers the attack in \u201cgreat detail\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ms Kaplan spoke to the jury about why they showed Mr Ailes\u2019s interview with Mr Trump from the 1990s.<\/p>\n
She said that Mr Ailes\u2019s talk show on the shortlived cable news network America\u2019s Talking was recorded in the same building, and broadcast on the same network, as Ms Carroll\u2019s programme on the channel \u2013 Ask E Jean.<\/p>\n
Ms Kaplan noted that Mr Trump would have seen the end of Ms Carroll\u2019s programme if he watched his appearance on Mr Ailes\u2019s show unless he changed the channel at the exact right moment.<\/p>\n
The attorney for Ms Carroll noted that a former executive at the Berghof Goodman said that there weren\u2019t many people in the lingerie department on Thursday nights, particularly in the early spring.<\/p>\n
Regarding Ms Carroll telling Mr Trump to try on the lingerie, Ms Kaplan said, \u201cI think we understand what was happening. This was a combination of humour and flirting,\u201d according to Law & Crime.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a joke. Ms Carroll could see the joke in her mind\u2019s eye,\u201d Ms Kaplan added. \u201cThe point was that it was funny.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking about what Mr Trump is alleged to have done to the writer, Ms Kaplan said, \u201cHe grabbed her by the p****, or vagina \u2014 I\u2019m sorry for my language\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ms Kaplan added that Mr Trump verbally attacked Ms Carroll during his time in the White House after she went public with her allegation following the eruption of the MeToo movement.<\/p>\n
The lawyer said her client started sleeping with a loaded gun in her bed as she was worried about the repercussions of going public, according to Law & Crime.<\/p>\n
Ms Kaplan quoted psychological expert Dr Leslie Lebowitz, who was hired by the Carroll legal team to testify at the trial.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople have really strange, really unexpected reactions to traumatic situations all the time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina repeatedly questioned Ms Carroll about her not screaming during the alleged assault.<\/p>\n
Ms Kaplan said that screaming \u201cis one of the least likely things to actually occur\u201d.<\/p>\n
The lawyer said her client remembers the assault in \u201cvivid, technicolour detail.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe remembers the sound of Trump\u2019s heavy breathing as he was facing the wall next to her neck,\u201d she said. \u201cShe remembers certain things vividly, and other things, not so much.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe psychological expert in this case believes Ms Carroll,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Speaking about her view of Mr Trump\u2019s defence in the case, Ms Kaplan said, \u201cIf a woman is going to accuse a man of sexual assault, she must play the part\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s just plain wrong,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Ms Kaplan called out what she said was Mr Trump\u2019s \u201cBig Lie\u201d in his defence \u2013 his argument that Ms Carroll, witnesses Lisa Birnbach, and Carol Martin are all not telling the truth.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry. Seriously? That\u2019s just ridiculous,\u201d Ms Kaplan said.<\/p>\n
Mr Trump\u2019s lies about the 2020 election being stolen are also often referred to as the \u201cBig Lie\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ms Kaplan said that for Mr Trump to win this case, the jury will have to find that Ms Carroll, Ms Birnbach, and Ms Martin all lied under oath.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes that make any sense at all, or does that suggest that there is one person here who\u2019s lying \u2014 and that that person is Donald Trump?\u201d the attorney asked.<\/p>\n
Ms Kaplan showed a chart of the allegations by Ms Carroll, Natasha Stoynoff, and Jessica Leeds, which showed that they all took place in a \u201csemi-public place,\u201d that Mr Trump grabbed them \u201csuddenly,\u201d and that he later said they were \u201cnot my type\u201d.<\/p>\n
The attorney also noted that none of the women screamed, according to Law & Crime.<\/p>\n
Ms Kaplan told the jury that for Mr Trump to win, \u201cYou have to conclude that Donald Trump, the nonstop liar, is the only person in here telling the truth\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ms Kaplan said the Carroll legal team wouldn\u2019t be requesting a specific damage award. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor E Jean Carroll, this lawsuit is not about the money,\u201d the attorney said, adding that it\u2019s about getting her \u201cname back\u201d.<\/p>\n
Carroll lawyer Michael Ferrara began his rebuttal of Mr Tacopina\u2019s closing argument by telling the jury that Mr Tacopina is a \u201cvery good lawyer\u201d. <\/p>\n
But he said that Mr Tacopina offered arguments instead of evidence, before slamming his comments on respecting the legal system \u201cwhen his own client didn\u2019t have enough respect\u201d to attend the trial.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe never looked you in the eye and denied raping E Jean Carroll,\u201d Mr Ferrara said about Mr Trump.<\/p>\n
Mr Ferrara said that Ms Birnbach and Ms Martin wouldn\u2019t gamble their professional credibility on a \u201charebrained\u201d scheme to take down Mr Trump, according to Law & Crime.<\/p>\n
He also scoffed at the idea that the trio \u201cmodelled their secret, secret scheme on one of the most popular shows on television,\u201d referring to Law & Order SVU.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sign up to our free US news bulletin sent straight to your inbox each weekday morningSign up to our free morning US email news bulletin Attorneys for E Jean Carroll described Donald Trump as a \u201cwitness against himself\u201d in closing arguments at the civil rape trial against the former president, whose defence was slammed as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n