Trump on deck to testify at E. Jean Carroll trial
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[January 25, 2024]
By Jonathan Stempel and Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Donald Trump may go face-to-face with the writer E.
Jean Carroll in open court on Thursday, to convince jurors he shouldn't
pay her any damages despite being liable for having defamed and sexually
abused her.
Lawyers for Carroll are expected to wrap up their case in federal court
in Manhattan, and Trump could testify in his own defense after they
finish.
Carroll, 80, is suing over Trump's June 2019 denials that he raped her
in the mid-1990s in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in
Manhattan. The former Elle magazine advice columnist is seeking at least
$10 million.
Trump, 77, has consistently denied wrongdoing, claiming he had known
Carroll despite photos showing them together, and accusing her of making
up the rape to boost sales of her memoir.
The trial has become an element of Trump's third White House run, with
the Republican frontrunner shuttling between the courtroom and campaign
stops, while criticizing Carroll, the judge and the judicial process
online and at press conferences.
Jurors last heard testimony a week ago, before the trial was delayed
because of COVID-19 concerns relating to a juror and one of Trump's
lawyers.
Last May, another jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $5 million after he
denied her rape claim in October 2022.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who has presided at both trials, has
ruled that the first trial established that Trump defamed and sexually
abused Carroll.
The only issues for the nine jurors in the current trial is how much
money Trump should pay Carroll, if any, for damaging her reputation -
and how much, if any, he should pay as punishment and to dissuade him
from defaming her again.
A damages expert testified on Carroll's behalf that the damage to her
reputation could be as high as $12.1 million.
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Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald
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Trump's legal team has said damages should be nominal or zero, and
that Carroll has gained more than whatever she might have lost by
pursuing and gaining her newfound game.
Kaplan last week warned Trump not to use the courtroom to air
political grievances, after one of Carroll's lawyers complained that
jurors might have overheard Trump calling the case a "witch hunt"
and "con job."
The judge has spent 29 years on the federal bench. He is known for
his no-nonsense approach, and for expressing impatience with lawyers
and witnesses who don't follow his instructions.
Kaplan could interrupt or shut down Trump's testimony, or throw him
out of the courtroom, if Trump persisted in speaking out of turn, or
digressed from the issues the jury will consider.
On Jan. 11, when another judge asked Trump if he could stick to the
facts if allowed to give a closing statement in the New York
attorney general's civil fraud case against him, Trump responded by
attacking the judge and proclaiming the case a politically inspired
sham.
Carroll's lawyers have warned that Trump might try to "sow chaos" if
he testified, because his defiance might aid him politically.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by
Noeleen Walder and Jonathan Oatis)
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