Trump lawyers set to attack writer's rape claim at civil trial

[April 27, 2023]  By Jack Queen and Jonathan Stempel
 
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Donald Trump's legal team is expected to attack the credibility of former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll on Thursday, as a civil trial resumes over her claim that the former U.S. president raped her and lied about it.  

E. Jean Carroll, former U.S. President Donald Trump rape accuser, arrives at Manhattan Federal Court, in New York City, U.S., April 26, 2023. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Under questioning from her lawyers on Wednesday, Carroll testified in graphic detail about how Trump allegedly assaulted her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.

Trump has consistently denied the allegations and claimed that Carroll made them up to sell books and hurt him politically.

Carroll told jurors in Manhattan federal court that Trump's subsequent denials shredded her credibility and ruined her career, costing her most of a readership she spent decades building.

Lawyers for Carroll are expected to resume their questioning on Thursday, and Trump's team will then get to cross-examine her.

Carroll is seeking unspecified damages from Trump who leads the Republican field in the 2024 presidential campaign.

The lawsuit concerns an alleged rape in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in late 1995 or early 1996, where Carroll said Trump coaxed her before slamming her into a wall and raping her.

Carroll says Trump later defamed her by calling her rape claim a hoax, saying that she was not his “type” and accusing her of making up the story to sell her memoir.

Trump is not attending the trial and is not required to.

He scorned the case in Wednesday posts on his Truth Social platform, saying Carroll was promoting a "fraudulent & false story" and calling her lawyer a "political operative."

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan warned that Trump could face more legal problems if he kept discussing the case outside of court, and twice advised Trump's legal team to speak with the former president about it.

(Reporting by Jack Queen and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Josie Kao)

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