His presence would have caused a sensation. But Donald Trump did not travel to New York on Thursday, May 4, to testify in person in the civil lawsuit brought against him by a former Elle magazine columnist who accuses him of rape committed in the 1990s.
The jury had to content themselves with viewing the testimony given by Donald Trump during the proceedings in October 2022, in which he firmly denies the alleged facts. At the end of the hearing, Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is presiding over the proceedings, had the lawyer for the former Republican president confirm that he waived the right to testify before the nine citizen jurors. Then, "in the interests of justice", he again left the door open for a very last minute appearance from the billionaire, "if he changes his mind".
From one of his golf courses in Ireland, Donald Trump had assured reporters on Thursday that he intended to "go home and confront" his accuser, but his lawyer, Joe Tacopina, gave no indication to that effect.
The trial is due to resume on Monday with closing arguments from attorneys for both sides. Then the jury will retire to decide whether the former president should pay damages to E. Jean Carroll, who has accused him since 2019 of raping her in the spring of 1996 in the dressing room of a department store. New York luxury, and defaming her when she came out of silence.
"She's a liar and she's really sick (…) I think she's sick, she has a mental disorder", repeats, in the video released Thursday, Donald Trump, who plans to win back the White House in 2024. He reiterates that he does not know E. Jean Carroll, at the time a columnist for Elle magazine, and reaffirms several times that she is "not [his] type".
"Old News"
He is then confronted with a photo at a social event where he is in front of the journalist, years before their alleged meeting in 1996. While claiming that he does not remember the scene, the former president confuses the plaintiff with his ex-wife: "It's my wife...it's Marla", he says, immediately corrected by his lawyer, who clarifies to him that "it's [E. John] Carroll".
The jury was also able to watch an excerpt from a video that has become famous, where we hear Donald Trump in 2005 make degrading remarks against women. He brags about kissing them and touching them as he pleases, then adds, "When you're a star, they let you. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy."
"It's really old news," he reacted during his testimony, referring to "locker room discussions".
According to a report by the American media, Donald Trump has been accused in the past by more than twenty women of having sexually assaulted them or of having made inappropriate gestures against them. He has always denied these accusations and has never been prosecuted. A civil conviction would add to these legal troubles, when he intends to appear against Joe Biden in 2024.
No eyewitness
In early April, in an unprecedented move for a former US president, he was criminally charged in New York with 34 accounting and tax frauds related to payments to cover up embarrassing business before the 2016 presidential election.
E. Jean Carroll, 79, was able to sue under a New York state law allowing sexual assault victims to reinitiate their civil lawsuits, even if criminally barred. Last week, she testified at length and described how her chance meeting with Donald Trump, at the entrance to the Bergdorf Goodman store, had ended in a rape in a dressing room on the 6th floor, deserted at the start of the evening. of spring 1996.
There are no eyewitnesses who saw Donald Trump and E. Jean Carroll on the shelves of the store, but two friends of the plaintiff confirmed in court that she confided in them, for one a few minutes later, for the other in the following days, that she had been "assaulted" or "attacked" by the businessman.
