Mediaboss Marketing

E. Jean Carroll, the writer who has sued former President Donald J. Trump, accusing him of rape, completed three days on the witness stand Monday in a civil trial in Manhattan federal court, with a lawyer for Mr. Trump continuing to try to show up inconsistencies in her testimony.

The stage was set for Ms. Carrolls lawyers to call additional witnesses to bolster her case.

Monday was the second of two days of cross-examination of Ms. Carroll by lawyer Joseph Tacopina about her allegation that the ex-president raped her in a dressing room in a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s.

Mr. Trump, who has avoided coming to court, has denied all wrongdoing. On Monday morning, the former presidents lawyers filed an unsuccessful motion for a mistrial, arguing that the court had made pervasive unfair and prejudicial rulings.

Ms. Carroll says she visited Bergdorf Goodman one evening in the mid-1990s. As she was leaving through a revolving door, Mr. Trump entered and recognized her, the suit says, and persuaded her to help him shop for a gift for a female friend. She has accused the former president of going on to attack her in a dressing room in the lingerie department.

Mr. Tacopina, in his questioning, focused on Ms. Carrolls memory of what happened that day some 30 years ago. On Monday, he used his cross-examination to point out inconsistencies between her testimony and her previous interviews and depositions, trying to suggest that she had benefited from making the allegation.

Mr. Tacopina asked about her 2019 appearance on an episode of a podcast called The Maris Review, during which Ms. Carroll said her life was fabulous.

It is the way I present myself to the world, Ms. Carroll testified. I do not want anyone to know that I suffered, she added.

Mr. Tacopina also focused on her testimony that she had been fired from Elle magazine after Mr. Trump denied her allegation in 2019 and called her a liar. Mr. Tacopina questioned Ms. Carroll about an email exchange in which she suggested she was fired because she published an excerpt from her book in a competing outlet, New York Magazine.

Ms. Carroll acknowledged that Nina Garcia, the editor in chief of Elle magazine, was very angry at her, but added that she took a hit when Mr. Trump called me a liar for three straight days.

My trustworthiness was exploded, Ms. Carroll said. It was like just crumbled, the foundation on which the whole column had rested for 27 years.

Mr. Tacopina appeared to struggle to get into any sort of rhythm during his cross-examination, with Ms. Carrolls lawyers frequently objecting to questions and the judge sustaining those objections. At times, Mr. Tacopina struggled to even get his team to display evidence for the court.

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan denied a motion filed by Mr. Tacopina asking him to declare a mistrial.

Among other complaints, Mr. Tacopina argued that the judge mischaracterized evidence to favor Ms. Carroll and improperly bolster her testimony; allowed her to note that Mr. Trump had two tables worth of lawyers while prohibiting the defense from noting she had a similar number; and wrongly sustained argumentative objections to his questions.

There comes a point where the cumulative effect of its one-sided rulings manifests a deeper leaning towards one party or another, Mr. Tacopina wrote.

Since lawyers gave their opening statements last week, Ms. Carroll has been the main witness. She related her story in graphic detail, testifying that she told two friends within a day of the attack. One told Ms. Carroll that what she had experienced was rape and that she needed to tell the police. A second told her not to tell anyone because Mr. Trump was powerful and his lawyers would bury her.

She kept silent for decades before writing about the event in a 2019 memoir.

Ms. Carroll sued Mr. Trump in November under a law that grants adult sexual abuse victims a one-year window to bring civil lawsuits against people they say abused them.

Her lawsuit asks that a jury find Mr. Trump liable for battery and defamation, order him to retract statements questioning her truthfulness and award her monetary damages.

The jury will determine how much, if anything, to award Ms. Carroll based on the suffering jury members believe she experienced.

Its unclear who will testify next. Shawn G. Crowley, a lawyer for Ms. Carroll, said last week that the jury would hear from the two friends that Ms. Carroll confided in immediately after the alleged rape, Lisa Birnbach and Carol Martin.

Ms. Crowley also said the jury will hear from several other witnesses, including Dr. Leslie Lebowitz, a clinical psychologist and trauma specialist; a professor who is an expert in sociology and communications, Ashlee Humphreys; and two other women who have accused Mr. Trump of sexual assault, Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff.

Originally posted here:
Day 4 of the Trump Rape Case: Carroll's Cross-Examination Is Complete - The New York Times