The civil lawsuit from a woman who says Donald Trump raped her decades ago centers on a “brief, brutal attack,” a lawyer for the woman, E. Jean Carroll, told the jury as the trial kicked off in Manhattan federal court Tuesday.
Carroll, a magazine columnist, is suing Trump for allegedly attacking her in a dressing room of luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman in the 1990s and sexually assaulting her — a claim Trump denies, saying the incident “never happened.” She also is suing him for defamation for publicly calling her allegations a “hoax.” She is seeking unspecified money damages.
Describing how Carroll and Trump bantered playfully before he allegedly assaulted her in the dressing room, Carroll’s lawyer, Shawn Crowley, told the 9-person jury, “the moment they went inside, everything changed. Suddenly, nothing was funny.”
“Trump was almost twice her size,” Crowley said to the jury. “He held down her arm, pulled down her tights and then he sexually assaulted her.”
Trump, who isn’t required to appear at the proceedings, didn’t attend the first day of the trial. His lawyer, Joe Tacopina, sought to portray Carroll’s claim as a “sick story” while also trying to reassure jurors that they could side with his client even if they dislike him.
“You can hate Donald Trump. It’s OK,” Tacopina told jurors. “But there’s a time and a secret place for that. It’s called a ballot box. Not here, in a court of law.”
“While no one is above the law, no one is also beneath the law,” he continued. “Politicians don’t make this country great, jurors do.”
Carroll, Tacopina argued, was motivated by money and by politics. He questioned her claim that no shoppers or employees were around to witness the incident in the department store, and he emphasized that she couldn’t recall certain details, most notably the precise timing of the alleged attack.
“You learned that E. Jean Carroll can’t tell you the date. She can't tell you the month. She can’t tell you the season. She can’t even tell you the year,” he said.
“Evidence will tell you that E. Jean Carroll can’t do any of those things because the story isn’t true.”
To combat some of those arguments, Crowley emphasized two main points in her opening statements: that Carroll’s account is corroborated by two friends she told contemporaneously and by former Bergdorf Goodman employees who can testify to physical attributes of the store at that time, and that Trump’s alleged assault of Carroll is part of a pattern. More than two dozen women have accused him of sexual misconduct.
Two other women who have accused Trump of sexual assault, Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stynoff, are set to testify, and Carroll’s attorneys have received permission from the judge to use the “Access Hollywood” tape — in which Trump boasts on a hot mic that “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything,” adding, “Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything” — as evidence at trial.
Trump’s lawyer, Tacopina, dismissed the significance of the tape, calling it a “lewd conversation from 20 years ago.” The tape was recorded in 2005 and became public in 2016.
“It’s foolish, but it’s locker room talk,” he said. “It’s not an admission.”
Crowley also seized on a statement Trump made in disputing Carroll’s claims that Carroll is “not my type!”
First, Crowley told the jury, “we all know what that means: He was saying she was too ugly to assault.”
Later in her remarks, she also argued that his comment was not only offensive but also a lie. Describing a portion of his videotaped deposition that Carroll’s lawyers intend to show the jury, Crowley showed jurors a black and white photograph of Trump with Carroll.
“When Trump was shown this photograph at his deposition late last year, he looked at it, he pointed to it, unprompted, and he said, ‘It’s Marla! Yeah, it’s Marla, my wife,’” Crowley said, raising her voice.
“He mistook her for Marla Maples, his second wife, a former model, who he admitted was exactly his type.”
The trial is expected to last between one and two weeks, and testimony is set to begin Wednesday. While Trump isn’t expected to attend the trial in coming days, the judge nevertheless offered an instruction that appeared aimed at the absent defendant.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who in court filings took issue with Trump’s recent comments urging his supporters to protest criminal charges against him, advised the lawyers to warn their clients against making remarks that “inspire violence.”
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