Trump rejects final probability to testify at New York civil trial

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 Decide 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 in the course of 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 looking for compensatory and punitive damages totaling hundreds of thousands of {dollars}.

The jury has additionally watched prolonged excerpts from a videotaped deposition from October during which Trump vehemently denied raping Carroll or ever actually understanding her.

After prosecutors rested their case Thursday, Tacopina instantly rested the protection case as effectively with out calling any witnesses.

Nonetheless, Kaplan mentioned he would give Trump till 5 p.m. Sunday to alter his thoughts and request to testify, although the choose didn’t promise he would grant such a request to reopen the protection case so Trump may take the stand.

As he gave Trump additional time to alter his thoughts, Kaplan famous that he’d heard about information reviews during which Trump instructed reporters whereas visiting his golf course in Doonbeg, Eire, that he would “most likely attend” the trial. Trump additionally criticized Kaplan, a Bill Clinton appointee, as an “extraordinarily hostile” and “tough choose” who “would not like me very a lot.”

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 mentioned the encounter started as a enjoyable and flirtatious outing as Trump coaxed her into serving to him store for a present for one more lady. She mentioned they ended up within the retailer’s desolate lingerie part, the place they teased one another to strive on a see-through bodysuit.

As Carroll recalled it, laughter accompanied them right into a dressing room the place Trump turned violent, slamming her up in opposition to a wall, pulling apart her tights and raping her earlier than she kneed him and fled the shop.

In his deposition, Trump mentioned Carroll made it up. He referred to 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 “sort.”

“She’s not my sort and that’s 100% true,” he mentioned.

And he repeated his claims in a 2005 “Entry Hollywood” video during which he bragged that males who’re celebrities can seize girls by the genitals with out asking.

“Traditionally that’s true with stars,” he mentioned.

Carroll sued Trump in November, minutes after New York state enacted a regulation 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 choose Sunday to complain that Trump nonetheless has not eliminated April 26 posts on his social media community during which he referred to as Carroll’s allegations “a made up SCAM.” And she or he famous that he repeated disparaging remarks in regards to the trial three days in the past in Eire.

After the April 26 postings on Fact Social, Decide Kaplan, who shouldn’t be associated to Carroll’s lawyer, mentioned Trump’s feedback have been “extremely inappropriate” and expressed concern that Trump was making an attempt to speak to the jury “about stuff that has no enterprise being spoken about.”

Trump’s legal professional didn’t reply to a request for remark Sunday.

The Related Press sometimes doesn’t identify individuals who say they’ve been sexually assaulted except they arrive ahead publicly, as Carroll has executed.