E. Jean Carroll will testify that Trump ‘slammed’ her against a wall before alleged sexual assault
Donald Trump “slammed” writer E. Jean Carroll against a wall before allegedly raping her — and decades later tried to “destroy and humiliate” her when she came forward with the accusations, her attorneys claimed Tuesday at the start of trial over her rape lawsuit against the former president.
The former Elle magazine advice columnist will take the stand to describe the alleged 1996 sexual assault in a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room, one of her attorneys, Shawn Crowley, told jurors during opening statements in Manhattan federal court.
“Donald Trump slammed against Ms. Carroll against the wall, he pressed his lips against her, she struggled to break free but she couldn’t,” Crowley said. “He held down her arm, pulled down her tights and then he sexually assaulted her.”
“The whole attack lasted just a few minutes but it would stay with her forever,” Crowley added of Carroll.
The nine-person jury hearing the case was selected earlier Tuesday, and will decide whether the 45th president should be held liable for monetary damages over the alleged attack and claims he defamed Carroll by denying her accusations when he was in the Oval Office some 30 years later.
Trump, 76, denies that anything happened between him and Carroll. He was not present in court on Tuesday.
Crowley told the jury how Carroll had allegedly bumped into the real estate mogul as she was leaving the Fifth Avenue department store, just across from Trump Tower, one evening in the spring of 1996.
The two — who had allegedly met once before at party — exchanged banter before Carroll agreed to help Trump pick out a gift for a woman, Crowley said. Trump led Carroll to the lingerie section on the deserted 6th floor of the store, where he saw a lace body suit that he tossed at her and told her to try on, Crowley alleged.
“Carroll laughed, told him to try it on himself,” Crowley said.
Trump then led Carroll into the dressing room where, “everything changed. Suddenly, nothing was funny,” Crowley said.
The attack allegedly ensued before Carroll finally managed to break free and run out of the fitting room and out of the store, onto Fifth Avenue, Crowley claimed.
Carroll immediately called her friend with a cell phone to tell her what happened, and the pal told her to report it to the police — but a scared Carroll swore her to secrecy, Crowley said.
Carroll told another friend who advised the writer to keep quiet about what happened, her attorney said.
“Filled with fear and shame, she kept silent for decades,” Crowley said, until, “eventually, though, silence became impossible.”
Carroll came out with her accusations against Trump in a book titled “What Do We Need Men For?” and in an excerpt of the tome published in New York Magazine in 2019.
The response from Trump — who was president at the time — was “explosive,” Crowley claimed.
“He went on the attack seeking to destroy and humiliate her,” Crowley said. “He said that none of it ever happened.
“He never met Ms. Carroll. He had no idea who she was. He ridiculed her, accusing her of inventing the story to make money to sell a book,” Crowley told the jury.
On social media, Trump said more then once that Carroll, wasn’t “his type.”
“He was saying she was too ugly to assault,” Crowley told the court of Trump’s comment.
“Speaking from the White House, Trump used the most powerful platform on Earth to lie about what he had done and attack Ms. Carroll’s integrity and insult her appearance,” Crowley alleged.
Crowley told the jury that they would hear from two other Trump sexual assault accusers, Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff, who would describe similar circumstances.
“Because that’s his MO,” Crowley alleged of Trump.
Crowley told the jury they would hear a 2005 recording of Trump speaking to a reporter unaware that there was a live mic on saying: “I’m automatically attracted to beautiful women. I just start kissing them … When you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the p—y.”
Crowley said that was “what Donald Trump admitted, when he thought no one was listening.”
“This was not locker room talk. It’s exactly what he did to Ms. Carroll and to other women,” Crowley claimed.
The lawyer said her client suffered reputational harm to a career she fostered for years, including her long-running advice column in Elle called “Ask E. Jean” and a television show based on the column.
But after Trump’s denials, Carroll became the target of online vitriol and landed on national headlines.
Trump “had branded her a liar and a fraud,” Crowley said. “Her reputation as a trusted journalist, a reputation she had spent her whole career building, was damaged badly.”
Later Tuesday, Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina told the jury to leave their feelings about Trump outside of the courtroom.
“People have very strong feelings about Donald Trump one way or the other … and it’s okay to feel however you feel,” Tacopina said. “You can hate Donald Trump and it’s okay but there is a time and a secret place for that — it’s called a ballot box in an election, not here in the court of law.”
The lawyer went on to tell the jury that Carroll lied about the attack happening and that “she is abusing the system by advancing a false claim of rape for money, for political reasons and for status.”
Tacopina said the fact that Carroll didn’t have a date for the alleged attack and had said it happened in either 1995 or 1996 show holes in her claims.
“You’ll learn that E. Jean Carroll can’t tell you the date she claims to have been raped,” Tacopina said. “She can’t tell you the month that she claims to have been raped. She can’t tell you the season. She can’t even tell you the year.”
Tacopina said that Carroll’s life improved since she came out with the claims, including making more money, making appearances on television and on podcasts.
“She became a celebrity and loved every minute of it,” he said.
Trump’s lawyer also implied to jurors that his client wouldn’t come to court for trial but telling the jury they would see his sworn testimony in clips of Trump’s video deposition.
After the jury was dismissed for the day, Manhattan federal judge Lewis Kaplan pressed Tacopina on whether Trump would come to court and told the lawyer he had to notify the court by the end of the week.
Earlier Tuesday, six men and three woman were selected for the jury with ages ranging from 26 to 66 years old.
Trial is set to resume Wednesday with Carroll expected to take the stand.
Additional reporting by Georgett Roberts
