After Years of Waiting, E. Jean Carroll Testifies on Trump and Trauma
Defamation and the dressing room.
Opening statements in E. Jean Carroll v. Donald J. Trump took place in a federal court in Manhattan on Wednesday before a jury of Trumpās peers, six men and three women. Itās the first in what could be two trials in the Big Apple against the former president of the United States. This one is a civil action for defamation and the tort of battery (not to be confused with criminal battery, a charge that can be brought only by the government). Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg has separately charged Trump criminally with 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money payments made, prior to the 2016 election, to two women with whom Trump allegedly had extramarital affairs.
Given Trumpās frontrunner status for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, the unifying theme between these cases is unmistakable: Donald Trumpās vile misogyny and contempt for women. The voting public blinked away this fact back in 2016 when the Access Hollywood tape of him bragging about his penchant for sexual assault leaked. Yet now, itās the womenāincluding Stormy Daniels, whose story is a linchpin of the Bragg indictmentāwho are finally having their day in court.
Carrollās battery claim arises from an alleged rape in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York City in 1996, when she was an advice columnist for Elle magazine. āHey, you are that advice lady,ā Carroll recounted Trump saying when she bumped into him while exiting the store. āHey, youāre that real estate tycoon,ā she replied, then agreeing to his request that she give her advice on purchasing a gift. He suggested lingerie, asking her to try a piece on. She joked back and they went together to a dressing room. āDonald Trump was being very light, it was very joshing and pleasant, and very funny,ā she said in court yesterday. āYes, I was flirting the whole time. The comedy was escalating.ā
Carroll testified that upon entering the dressing room, Trump āimmediately shut the door and shoved me against the wall,ā pinning her arms back and banging her head. After pulling down her tights, āHis hand, his finger went into my vagina, which was extremely painful. It was a horrible feeling,ā Carroll testified. āHe put his hand inside me and curved his finger. As I sit here today, I can still feel it. Then he inserted his penis.ā She testified that she has not had sex or been in a romantic relationship since, due to the trauma from the incident. Although Carroll contemporaneously told two friends about what happened, she didnāt go public with her experience until 2019, in the wake of the #MeToo surge.
Trumpās lawyer will cross-examine Carroll on Thursday. An opening argument outlined his plans for discrediting her. āE. Jean Carroll canāt tell you the date she claims to have been raped,ā he argued. āShe canāt tell you the month she claims to have been raped. She canāt tell you the season. She canāt even tell you the year,ā he said, and then questioned her veracity further. āE. Jean Carroll once called the police on teenagers who vandalized her mailbox but not when she was violently raped,ā he said.
Under New York law, civil battery requires proof of unauthorized bodily contact which is offensive in nature and made with intent. Although the victimās consent is a defense, Trump himself foreclosed the opportunity to raise it in this case. On June 21, 2019, he issued a public statement:
Regarding the āstoryā by E. Jean Carroll, claiming she once encountered me at Bergdorf Goodman 23 years ago. Iāve never met this person in my life. She is trying to sell a new bookāthat should indicate her motivation. It should be sold in the fiction section.
Shame on those who make up false stories of assault to try to get publicity for themselves, or sell a book, or carry out a political agendaālike Julie Swetnick who falsely accused Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Itās just as bad for people to believe it, particularly when there is zero evidence. Worse still for a dying publication to try to prop itself up by peddling fake newsāitās an epidemic. . .
False accusations diminish the severity of real assault. All should condemn false accusations and any actual assault in the strongest possible terms.
If anyone has information that the Democratic Party is working with Ms. Carroll or New York Magazine, please notify us as soon as possible. The world should know whatās really going on. It is a disgrace and people should pay dearly for such false accusations. In a later statement he added, among other things, that āsheās not my type.ā Carrollās counsel plans to call other women to the stand with similar stories of sexual assault by the former president.
Trumpās denials give rise to the second count of defamation. Under New York law, defamation requires a showing (1) that the defendant made a false and defamatory statement that he knew or should have known was false; (2) that the false statement clearly identified the target; (3) that the defendant published the defamatory statement to some third party who is not the target; and (4) that the false statement damaged the plaintiff. (For certain types of false statements, damages are presumed under what is known as defamation per se; Carrollās lawyers argue that it applies here.)
Trump has already triggered the ire of the judge by calling the lawsuit a āscamā on his Trump Social platform on Wednesday. Either Trump will learn quickly that heās not the boss of this courtroom, or he will face consequences the likes of which heās never seen. The rule of law, the evidence, and a federal judge with life tenure are in charge now. Itās no wonder that Carroll, after hours of testimony, broke down in tears describing ābeing able to get my day in court . . . Iām crying, but I got to tell my story in court.ā
