NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump rejected his final probability Sunday to testify at a civil trial the place a longtime recommendation columnist has accused him of raping her in a luxurious division retailer dressing room in 1996.
Trump, a Republican candidate for president in 2024, was given till 5 p.m. Sunday by U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan to file a request to testify. Nothing was filed.
It was not a shock. Trump has not proven up as soon as through the two-week Manhattan trial the place author E. Jean Carroll testified for a number of days, repeating claims she first made publicly in a 2019 memoir. She is in search of compensatory and punitive damages totaling thousands and thousands of {dollars}.
The jury has additionally watched prolonged excerpts from a videotaped deposition from October wherein Trump vehemently denied raping Carroll or ever actually realizing her.
After prosecutors rested their case Thursday, Tacopina instantly rested the protection case as nicely with out calling any witnesses.
Still, Kaplan stated he would give Trump till 5 p.m. Sunday to vary his thoughts and request to testify, although the decide didn’t promise he would grant such a request to reopen the protection case so Trump may take the stand.
PHOTOS: Trump rejects final probability to testify at New York civil trial
As he gave Trump further time to vary his thoughts, Kaplan famous that he’d heard about information stories wherein Trump advised reporters whereas visiting his golf course in Doonbeg, Ireland, that he would “probably attend” the trial. Trump additionally criticized Kaplan, a Bill Clinton appointee, as an “extremely hostile” and “rough judge” who “doesn’t like me very much.”
Kaplan had scheduled closing arguments for Monday, with jurors prone to start deliberations on Tuesday.
On the witness stand, Carroll testified that Trump raped her in spring 1996 after they met on the entrance of the midtown Manhattan division retailer Bergdorf Goodman.
She stated the encounter started as a enjoyable and flirtatious outing as Trump coaxed her into serving to him store for a present for an additional girl. She stated they ended up within the retailer’s desolate lingerie part, the place they teased one another to attempt on a see-through bodysuit.
As Carroll recalled it, laughter accompanied them right into a dressing room the place Trump grew to become violent, slamming her up towards a wall, pulling apart her tights and raping her earlier than she kneed him and fled the shop.
In his deposition, Trump stated Carroll made it up. He known as it “a false, disgusting lie” delivered by a “nut job” who was making an attempt to stoke gross sales of her e book.
He additionally repeated feedback he made in statements that she was not his “type.”
“She’s not my type and that’s 100% true,” he stated.
And he repeated his claims in a 2005 “Access Hollywood” video wherein he bragged that males who’re celebrities can seize ladies by the genitals with out asking.
“Historically that’s true with stars,” he stated.
Carroll sued Trump in November, minutes after New York state enacted a legislation permitting grownup sexual assault victims to sue others even when the assaults occurred a long time earlier.
Carroll’s legal professional, Roberta Kaplan, wrote a letter to the decide Sunday to complain that Trump nonetheless has not eliminated April 26 posts on his social media community wherein he known as Carroll’s allegations “a made up SCAM.” And she famous that he repeated disparaging remarks in regards to the trial three days in the past in Ireland.
After the April 26 postings on Truth Social, Judge Kaplan, who just isn’t associated to Carroll’s lawyer, stated Trump’s feedback have been “highly inappropriate” and expressed concern that Trump was making an attempt to speak to the jury “about stuff that has no business being spoken about.”
Trump’s legal professional didn’t reply to a request for remark Sunday.
The Associated Press sometimes doesn’t title individuals who say they’ve been sexually assaulted until they arrive ahead publicly, as Carroll has executed.
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