Donald Trump rejects final chance to testify in rape trial
Former United States President Donald Trump, who once claimed it was fine to “Grab ‘em (women) by the pussy,” declined his last chance to testify at a civil trial where he is accused of raping a US journalist in a luxury department store dressing room in 1996.
The trial has been ongoing for two weeks, with Elizabeth Jean Carroll seeking millions of dollars in damages. Despite being given until yesterday by US District Judge Lewis A Kaplan to file a request to testify, Trump did not file anything.
It was not surprising, as he has not appeared once during the trial. The jury has watched excerpts from an October deposition in which Trump denied raping Carroll or knowing her. Without Trump’s testimony, the defence rested their case without calling any witnesses, reported Aljazeera.
Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, did not request additional time for Trump to testify and declined to comment on the matter. Lawyers are set to make closing arguments, with deliberations likely to begin the following day.
Kaplan had given the former president additional time to request to testify. However, the judge did not promise to grant such a request to reopen the defence case so Trump could take the stand.
On Thursday, Kaplan had heard news reports in which Trump told reporters while visiting his golf course in Doonbeg, Ireland, that he would “probably attend” the trial. Trump also criticised Kaplan, a Bill Clinton appointee, as an “extremely hostile” and “rough judge” who “doesn’t like me very much.”
The 79 year old Carrol testified on the witness stand that the 76 year old Trump raped her in early 1996 after they met at the entrance of the midtown Manhattan department store Bergdorf Goodman.
She recounted how the encounter started as a fun and flirtatious outing where Trump coaxed her into helping him shop for a gift for another woman. They ended up in the store’s desolate lingerie section, where they teased each other to try on a see-through bodysuit. However, laughter turned to violence when Trump allegedly slammed her up against a wall, pulled aside her tights and raped her before she kneed him and fled the store.
In his deposition, Trump claimed that Carroll made up the story, calling it “a false, disgusting lie” delivered by a “nut job” trying to stoke sales of her book. He repeated his previous comments that she was not his “type.” He said…
“She’s not my type and that’s 100% true.”
In a 2005 “Access Hollywood” video Trump, who plans to “Make America Great Again” if he is elected president again bragged that men who are celebrities can grab women by the “pussy” without asking. He said…
“Historically that’s true with stars.” Read the full transcript HERE.
Carroll filed a lawsuit against Trump in November 2019, moments after a New York state law was passed allowing adult victims of sexual assault to sue their attackers even after several years.
Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, wrote a letter to the judge on Sunday, complaining that Trump hasn’t deleted the posts he made on his social media network on April 26, where he called the allegations “a made-up SCAM.”
Furthermore, Kaplan noted that Trump had made derogatory remarks about the trial in Ireland three days prior. Judge Kaplan, who is not related to Carroll’s lawyer, had previously deemed Trump’s comments on the trial “highly inappropriate” and expressed concern that Trump may have tried to influence the jury “about stuff that has no business being spoken about” after his April 26 postings on Truth Social.
