Unsurprisingly, Donald Trump did not travel to New York for the civil trial in which a former Elle magazine columnist accuses him of rape in the 1990s. the proceedings, a video where he strongly denies the facts described by the complainant. At the end of the hearing, Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is presiding over the proceedings, had the lawyer for the former American 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 last-minute appearance from the Republican billionaire, "if he changes his mind." From one of his golf courses in Ireland, Donald Trump 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 having raped her in the spring of 1996 in the fitting room of a department store. New York luxury, Bergdorf Goodman, and to have defamed her when she came out of silence.
In the absence of Donald Trump, who plans to regain the White House in 2024, the jurors contented themselves with excerpts from his testimony during the procedure, via a recorded hearing last October. "She's a liar and she's really sick [...] I think she's sick, she has a mental disorder", repeats the former president, blue jacket and blue tie on a white shirt. 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".
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, Marla: "She's my wife… she's Marla", he says, immediately corrected by his lawyer, who clarifies to him that "it's (E. Jean) Carroll".
The jury was also able to view an excerpt from a video that became famous, where we hear Donald Trump in 2005 making degrading remarks against women. He brags about kissing and touching them as he pleases, then adds, "When you're a star, they let you. You can do anything. Catch them by the pussy. "It's really old news," he reacted during his deposition, referring to "locker room discussions".
According to a report by American media, Donald Trump has been accused in the past by more than 20 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.
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 deals ahead of 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 Bergdorf Goodman, had ended in a rape in a dressing room on the 6th floor, deserted at the start of the evening of spring of 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.
