Trump says he will ‘probably attend’ E. Jean Carroll trial to ‘confront this’

by Julia Shapero - 05/04/23 10:59 AM ET

Former President Trump said Thursday he will “probably attend” the ongoing civil trial in Manhattan over writer E. Jean Carroll’s rape allegations to “confront this.”

“I have to leave Ireland and I have to leave Scotland, where I have great properties,” Trump told reporters from a golf course in Ireland. “I have to leave early. I don’t have to, but I choose to.”

“It’s a disgrace that it’s allowed to happen,” he added. “It’s 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.”

“I have to go back for a woman that made a false accusation about me, and I have a judge who is extremely hostile,” Trump continued. “And I’m going to go back, and I’m going to confront this. This woman is a disgrace, and it shouldn’t be allowed to happen in our country.”

Carroll came forward in 2019 with allegations that the former president raped her in a dressing room at a Bergdorf Goodman department store in the mid-1990s.

She is suing Trump for sexual battery over the alleged assault and for defamation over an October 2022 post on Truth Social that once again denied the allegations and criticized Carroll’s appearance.

“I’m here because Donald Trump raped me, and when I wrote about it, he said it didn’t happen,” Carroll testified during her first day on the stand last week. “He lied and shattered my reputation, and I’m here to try and get my life back.”

More E. Jean Carroll trial coverage from The Hill:

Trump’s attorneys said Tuesday the former president would not testify at the trial and announced Wednesday they did not plan to call any witnesses. Trump and psychiatrist Edgar Nace were the only two listed witnesses that the Trump team could call in the case.

Carroll’s lawyers played a portion of Trump’s deposition on Wednesday after learning the former president’s attorneys would not call any witnesses.

“It’s the most ridiculous, disgusting story,” Trump said in the deposition taken in October. “It’s just made up.”

He also argued that if the rape happened, “it would have been reported within minutes.”

However, Lisa Birnbach, a longtime friend of Carroll, testified Tuesday that Carroll called her minutes after the alleged assault. Birnbach said she and Carroll argued about whether she should report the rape to authorities before agreeing never to speak of the incident again.

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