Former United States President Donald Trump has rejected his last chance to testify in a civil trial, initiated after a rape accusation by writer E Jean Carroll.
In her lawsuit, Carroll has stated that Trump raped her in a dressing room in the Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York City in spring of 1996 and later defamed her on social media by labelling her allegations “a hoax and a lie”.
Trump was given a deadline of 5 pm on Sunday to file his request to testify in the New York civil trial but nothing was filed. While Carroll has been testifying for several days reiterating her claims which she had first made public via her memoir in 2019, Trump has not shown up once during the two-week trial in a Manhattan court.
Also, the judges have watched a lengthy videotaped deposition of Donald Trump wherein the 76-year-old has vehemently denied rape allegations. He even said that he did not “ever really know her”. In his deposition video, the former president also said that Carroll was “not his type”.
“She is not my type and that’s 100 per cent true,” Trump had said.
WHAT HAS HAPPENED SO FAR
On Thursday, Carroll, who is on the plaintiff’s side, rested her case and Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina immediately rested the defence case as well. No witnesses were called and no additional time to deliberate testifying was sought by Trump.
79-year-old Carroll, on the witness stand, testified that Trump raped her in spring 1996 after they met at the entrance of a Manhattan department store Bergdorf Goodman. She alleged that after a brief encounter and firtatious outing, Trump influenced her into helping him shop for another woman and they ended up in the store’s lingerie section.
She further recalled that Trump even accompanied her to a dressing room where he became violent and even slammed her up against a wall. She said in court that she had fled the store after she kneed Trump for raping her.
Carroll’s friend and author Lisa Birnbach also took the witness stand, testifying that she received a phone call about the alleged assault minutes after it occurred.
In his previous deposition, Trump has deemed Carroll’s side of the story as nothing but a “disgusting lie” and that she had been trying to stoke sales of her memoir.