By Larry Neumeister | Related Press
NEW YORK — Donald Trump must be held accountable for sexually attacking an recommendation columnist in 1996 as a result of even a former president isn't above the regulation, a lawyer for the columnist instructed a jury Monday in closing arguments within the lawsuit that accuses Trump of rape.
A lawyer for Trump responded by calling the accuser’s account “unbelievable” and “outrageous.”
As soon as the ultimate arguments had been full, the choose despatched the jury dwelling with directions to return Tuesday to listen to about an hour of directions earlier than starting deliberations. Jurors will probably be requested to determine whether or not Trump dedicated battery and defamed author E. Jean Carroll and whether or not damages must be awarded.
In recapping Carroll’s case, legal professional Roberta Kaplan confirmed jurors video clips of Trump from his October deposition and replayed the “Entry Hollywood” video from 2005 by which Trump stated right into a scorching mic that celebrities can seize girls’s genitals with out asking.
Kaplan recalled Trump’s remark that “stars like him can get away with sexually assaulting girls.”
“That’s who Donald Trump is. That's how he thinks. And that’s what he does,” Kaplan stated. “He thinks he can get away with it right here.”
Kaplan used Trump’s phrases to help Carroll’s claims that Trump raped her in early spring 1996 within the dressing room of Bergdorf Goodman, a luxurious division retailer in Manhattan throughout the road from Trump Tower.
Trump’s legal professional, Joe Tacopina, attacked the allegations as absurd, saying they had been an “affront to justice” and minimized “actual rape victims.”
He agreed with Kaplan that nobody is above the regulation, however he warned that “nobody’s under it” both.
Tacopina instructed jurors they gained’t need to “let her revenue to the tune of tens of millions of dollars” as a result of they may see that it's not possible to imagine the “unbelievable.”
“That is a fully outrageous case,” he stated, arguing that Carroll sued to lift her standing and for political causes.
He stated even Carroll had testified that it was an “astonishing coincidence” that a “Legislation and Order” offshoot aired an episode in 2012 by which a girl is raped within the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman.
“What's the probability of that?” Tacopina requested. “One in 20 billion? One in 10 billion?”
Tacopina stated the claims had been too absurd to name his shopper as a witness, noting that Carroll anticipated jurors to imagine Trump would danger every little thing to assault a girl in a busy division retailer despite the fact that she couldn’t bear in mind precisely when the assault occurred.
“What might I've requested Donald Trump? The place had been you on some unknown date, 27 or 28 years in the past?” he stated.
In a rebuttal argument, Carroll legal professional Mike Ferrara mocked Trump’s choice to skip the trial, saying jurors might use his absence to conclude that Trump dedicated the assault as a result of Trump “by no means seemed you within the eye and denied it.”
Kaplan instructed jurors that it wasn’t a “he stated, she stated” case however slightly one by which jurors ought to weigh what 11 witnesses, together with Carroll, stated versus what they heard from Trump in his video deposition.
“He didn’t even hassle to indicate up right here in individual,” Kaplan stated, referring to Trump’s absence from the proceedings in federal court docket. She instructed jurors that a lot of what he stated in his deposition and in public statements “really helps our facet of the case.”
“In a really actual sense, Donald Trump is a witness in opposition to himself,” she stated. “He is aware of what he did. He is aware of that he sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll.”
Kaplan recounted the testimony of two girls who say they too had been attacked sexually by Trump.
Jessica Leeds, 81, stated he grabbed her chest and ran his hand up her skirt on a 1979 airline flight. Natasha Stoynoff stated he forcibly kissed her at his Florida mansion in 2005 as she labored on a narrative about his marriage for Folks journal.
Trump has insisted in public statements and within the deposition that Carroll made up the claims to spice up gross sales of a 2019 memoir. He has referred to as Carroll “mentally sick” and a “shame.”
Carroll, 79, who's searching for unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, testified for greater than two days. Kaplan praised her testimony as “credible.”
“It was constant, and it was highly effective,” the lawyer stated.
She contrasted that testimony with Trump’s deposition, noting that a man who had derided Carroll as not his “kind” was proven a photograph of Carroll from over three many years in the past and twice misidentified her as his second spouse, Marla Maples.
“Carroll, a former cheerleader and Miss Indiana, was precisely Mr. Trump’s kind,” Kaplan stated. “She is wise. She is humorous. She is gorgeous. And, most of all, she is brave.”
Carroll stated she was leaving the Bergdorf Goodman retailer by a revolving door in spring 1996 when Trump was getting into the shop and stopped her to assist him store for a present for a lady.
Carroll, a former “Saturday Evening Reside” author, stated they took escalators to the shop’s desolate sixth ground, the place they teased one another about attempting on a chunk of see-through lingerie.
She stated she entered a dressing room with Trump earlier than the flirting turned violent, with Trump slamming her in opposition to a wall, knocking down her tights and raping her. She stated she kneed him after an encounter that lasted a number of minutes and fled the shop.
Carroll blames the encounter partly for by no means having one other intimate relationship in her life.
Trump’s public feedback are the idea of Carroll’s defamation declare. Kaplan labeled the feedback as lies and stated they ruined her shopper’s fame and compelled an finish to her 27-year employment as an Elle journal advance columnist.
Kaplan urged jurors to seek out in favor of “my courageous shopper, E. Jean Carroll,” however she put no quantity on the damages being sought.
“Take into account the proof and choose a quantity you assume is correct,” she stated. “This lawsuit isn't in regards to the cash. This lawsuit is about getting her identify again.”