Carroll begins testimony: ‘I’m here because Donald Trump raped me’

Author E. Jean Carroll took the stand before a federal jury on Wednesday in her civil trial against former President Trump, who she accused of raping her more than two decades ago.

“I’m here because Donald Trump raped me, and when I wrote about it, he said it didn’t happen,” Carroll began her testimony, according to The Associated Press. “He lied and shattered my reputation, and I’m here to try and get my life back.”

The writer, who is suing for battery and defamation, alleges that the former president attacked and raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store in the mid-1990s.

After coming forward with the allegations in 2019, Carroll claims that Trump defamed her by making “false and insulting” statements that caused reputational harm, including in a 2019 interview with The Hill in which the former president said Carroll was “totally lying” and “not my type.”

Trump continued to assail the case as a “made up SCAM” and a “fraudulent & false story” in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday morning ahead of Carroll’s testimony.

District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is overseeing the trial, warned Trump attorney Joe Tacopina that his client “may or may not be tampering with a new source of potential liability” with his comments.

“What seems to be the case is that your client is basically endeavoring, certainly to speak to his quote-unquote public, but more troubling the jury in this case about stuff that has no business being spoken about,” Kaplan said on Wednesday, according to the AP.

Carroll’s trial against the former president comes after he was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records by the Manhattan district attorney earlier this month for his role in a 2016 hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels.