Witnesses allege more assaults by Trump in E. Jean Carroll lawsuit
Eden Villalovas
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Witnesses in E. Jean Carroll‘s lawsuit accusing Donald Trump of rape and defamation accused the former president of assaulting them, too, as they testified.
Carroll, a notable columnist, accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store in the mid-1990s. Trump consistently denied the allegations, which resulted in Carroll moving to file a defamation suit against Trump on the stance that his repeated denial damaged her reputation as a writer.
TRUMP DEPOSITION VIDEO IN E. JEAN CARROLL DEFAMATION TRIAL RELEASED
Accusations against Trump came to light in 2019, and the trial began last month. She is suing him in a Manhattan federal court for charges of battery over the alleged rape and for defaming her on social media.
Carroll’s team of attorneys presented a mass of evidence and called multiple witnesses to the stand, while the defense for Trump did not call any witnesses. Judge Lewis Kaplan has given Trump until 5 p.m. on Sunday to decide if he would like to testify.
Carroll’s witnesses have included other victims that Trump allegedly assaulted, along with family, friends, colleagues, professionals, and more.
Over two dozen women have accused Trump of sexual assault, and two of them testified in the trial, according to Politico.
Natasha Stoynoff traveled to Mar-a-Lago to interview Donald and Melania Trump in December 2005 while working for People magazine as a reporter. Stoynoff claimed Trump pushed her against a wall and started kissing her without her consent.
“In those few minutes alone with Trump, my self-esteem crashed to zero,” Stoynoff wrote in People in 2016. “How could the actions of one man make me feel so utterly violated?”
Jessica Leeds, an 81-year-old former businesswoman from North Carolina, testified on Tuesday at the civil trial that Trump groped her chest and put his hand up her skirt on a flight to New York.
“He was grabbing my breasts. It was like he had 40 zillion hands. It was like a tussling match between the two of us,” Leeds said.
Lisa Birnbach, author and friend of Carroll, is one of two people Carroll told at the time the alleged assault occurred. Birnbach testified on Tuesday in support of Carroll’s case, stating Carroll called her hyperventilating and emotional minutes after she was assaulted.
“I knew that I wasn’t going to tell anybody ever again about this. Lisa shocked me in the call,” Carroll said in her testimony from October 2022, which can be read in full here. “She told me I had been raped.”
The other person Carroll confided in after the alleged assault was Carol Martin, a friend, former colleague, and retired journalist. Martin took the stand Wednesday, on the final day jurors heard testimony. She said, “I believed it then, and I believe it today.”
Two former employees of Bergdorf Goodman showed Carroll support as well and brought information about the technicalities of the store operations. Cheryl Beall, former women’s store manager, was Carroll’s first witness on April 26. Before Carroll took the stand, Beall gave jurors a description of the sixth-floor plan, citing that that specific floor wasn’t busy and dressing rooms were occasionally unlocked, according to CNN.
Robert Salerno, a former executive with the department store, said he did not think there were security cameras installed on the sixth floor, where the assault allegedly took place.
Two experts weighed in on the trial, Leslie Lebowitz, a clinical psychologist, and Ashlee Humphreys, an associate professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, and Integrated Marketing Communication.
Lebowitz, who spent around 20 hours interviewing Carroll, explained how the incident affected her: “She blamed herself for it — she felt like she was stupid in a way that was hard to shake,” the New York Times reported.
Elle magazine Editor-in-Chief and colleague Roberta Myers told jurors that Carroll’s Elle advice column won many affections from readers, saying she was a “truth teller.”
Cande Carroll, E. Jean Carroll’s sister, said her sister kept the alleged rape from their family, saying they did not talk about personal matters growing up in order to keep a positive attitude publicly.
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Trump told reporters Wednesday during his golf trip to Scotland and Ireland that he will “probably” attend the trial and return to New York.
Trump said the trial is a disgrace and contains false accusations “against a rich guy, or, in my case, against a famous, rich, and political person that’s leading the polls by 40 points, and I have to go back for a woman that made a false accusation about me.”