NEW YORK: The writer suing Donald Trump for allegedly raping her nearly 30 years ago told jurors at a civil trial on Wednesday that the former US president sexually assaulted her and defamed her by lying about it.
“I’m here because Donald Trump raped me, and when I wrote about it, he lied and said it didn’t happen,” E. Jean Carroll said in Manhattan federal court. “He lied and shattered my reputation, and I’m here to try and get my life back.”
Carroll, 79, a former Elle magazine advice columnist, is seeking unspecified damages from Trump, 76, who leads the Republican field in the 2024 presidential campaign.
She is suing over an alleged encounter in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in late 1995 or early 1996, where she says Trump raped her until she was able to flee.
Carroll is suing Trump for defamation after he called her rape claim a hoax, lie and “complete con job” on his Truth Social media platform, and said he had not known her, she was not his “type,” and she made up the claim to sell her memoir.
She is also suing under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which lets adults sue their alleged abusers long after statutes of limitations have run out.
Trump is not attending and not required to attend the trial, which began on Tuesday and is expected to last one to two weeks.
But he expressed his views about it again on Wednesday, writing on Truth Social that Carroll’s rape claim was “a made up SCAM” and said: “This is a fraudulent & false story—Witch Hunt!”
His comments prompted US District Judge Lewis Kaplan to warn that Trump could face more legal problems if he kept discussing the case.
‘I CAN STILL FEEL IT,’ TRUMP’S ACCUSER SAYS
Carroll testified that she had met Trump years before the alleged rape, finding him “very personable” and a “man about town.”
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