Trump Breaks His Silence on ‘Ridiculous’ E. Jean Carroll Lawsuit, May Race Back to New York To ‘Confront’ Her

Jury deliberations will soon begin in the high-profile civil battery and defamation suit brought against President Trump by a journalist, E. Jean Carroll, who says Mr. Trump raped her in a dressing room on the lingerie floor at Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury New York department store, some time in the mid-1990s.Now, as his lawyers have experienced setback after setback from an inhospitable New York judge, Mr. Trump is considering cutting short a business trip to his golf resort in Ireland and returning to his hometown to confront her. He says he may attend the final day of the trial.“I was falsely accused by this woman, I have no idea who she is — it’s ridiculous,” the former president told reporters.Throughout the trial, Mr. Trump had remained uncharacteristically quiet. During other legal tribulations — whether it be his first impeachment in 2019, the criminal case brought by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, or the fraud lawsuit filed by the New York state attorney general’s office — he often took to social media to decry those who were going after him. The man overseeing Ms. Carroll’s case, Judge Lewis Kaplan, had previously cautioned both parties to refrain from making inflammatory public statements “that will incite violence or civil unrest.”Up until now, Mr. Trump has avoided attending the trial and has said very little in public. On Thursday, as the trial comes to a close, Mr. Trump finally offered some scathing criticism — of the lawsuit, Ms. Carroll, and even of the presiding judge. Speaking to reporters in Ireland, he said he would “probably” return to Manhattan in order to “confront” his accusers. “I’ll be going back early because a woman made a claim that is totally false, it’s fake,” he said. One of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, Joe Tacopina, recently told the court that Mr. Trump would not offer a defense, would call no witnesses, and would not testify, meaning the jury deliberations could begin as soon as next week. The former president claimed that Judge Kaplan was biased against him because the jurist had been appointed to the federal bench by President Clinton. “He doesn’t like me very much, he was appointed by Bill Clinton. It’s a disgrace but we have to do it, it’s a part of life,” Mr. Trump said.Ms. Carroll’s lawsuit has largely depended on testimony from other women who claim to have been the object of groping and unwanted kissing by Mr. Trump many years ago. On Tuesday, a woman named Jessica Leeds told her story to the jury, claiming that the former president groped her on a plane in the late 1970s after she was invited to sit in first class. “He was trying to kiss me and trying to pull me,” Ms. Leeds said of Mr. Trump. “He was grabbing my breasts. It’s like he had 40 zillion hands.”Another woman, journalist Natasha Stoyonoff, testified that Mr. Trump sexually assaulted her at his Mar-a-Lago estate in late 2005 when she was writing a profile of the future president and his new wife, Melania, for People magazine. Ms. Stoyonoff claimed that Mr. Trump was giving her a private tour of his Florida estate as his wife was getting dressed for the interview. She said that he took her to an empty room and shut the door behind her. “He was against me and just holding my shoulders back,” Ms. Stoyonoff said. “I didn’t say words. I couldn’t. I tried. I mean, I was just flustered and sort of shocked and I — no words came out of me. I tried, though. I remember just sort of mumbling.”In calling on all of these women who have accused the former president of wrongdoing, Ms. Carroll’s lawyers have attempted to tell a larger story about Mr. Trump’s alleged pattern of behavior — that he used his fame to do what he wanted, and when accused by these women, has insulted them physically and said they had ulterior motives, whether it be for publicity or financial gain. Because Ms. Carroll never filed a police report or told many people about the alleged incident at the time, questions about her credibility and motive for bringing the suit now have been aggressively asked by Mr. Trump’s legal team. The only time the jury has heard from the former president was through a video of a deposition he gave in 2022. “If it did happen, it would have been reported within minutes,” Mr. Trump said of the alleged assault. He also said that someone at Bergdorf Goodman, a “very busy store,” would have heard or seen something if the assault had happened. “It’s the most ridiculous, disgusting story. It’s just made up,” the former president said in the video.

Trump Breaks His Silence on ‘Ridiculous’ E. Jean Carroll Lawsuit, May Race Back to New York To ‘Confront’ Her

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