Author E. Jean Carroll arrives for her civil trial towards former President Donald Trump at Manhattan’s federal courtroom in New York Metropolis, Could 8, 2023.
Stephanie Keith | Getty Pictures
A lawyer for author E. Jean Carroll advised jurors Monday that Donald Trump adopted a “playbook” he had for kissing and groping girls with out their consent earlier than he raped Carroll in a New York division retailer dressing room within the mid-Nineties.
“It’s essential to maintain him to account for what he is achieved,” Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan stated. She delivered the closing argument to jurors in U.S. District Court docket in Manhattan for a civil trial by which Trump, the main 2024 Republican presidential candidate, is accused of battery and defaming the author.
Kaplan confirmed jurors a snippet of the “Entry Hollywood” tape by which Trump boasted in 2005 about touching girls with out their consent.
“I simply begin kissing them. It is like a magnet. Simply kiss. I do not even wait. And whenever you’re a star, they allow you to do it. You are able to do something. Seize ’em by the p—y. You are able to do something,” Trump stated on the tape, recorded for an look on that leisure present.
Kaplan advised jurors: “What’s he doing right here? He’s telling you in his personal phrases his modus operandi, his M.O. … he kissed them with out their consent.”
“The proof exhibits overwhelmingly he adopted this playbook and within the dressing room there grabbed [Carroll] by the p—y,” she stated.
In his deposition within the case, Trump advised Kaplan that “sadly or happily,” for “hundreds of thousands of years,” stars had been in a position to sexually grope girls with out asking permission first.
Former Elle journal recommendation columnist E. Jean Carroll watches as former President Donald Trump’s video deposition is performed in courtroom throughout a civil trial by which Carroll accuses Trump of raping her in a division retailer dressing room within the mid-Nineties and of defamation, in New York, Could 4, 2023, on this courtroom sketch.
Jane Rosenberg | Reuters
“He truly used the phrase ‘happily’ describing sexual assault,” Kaplan advised jurors.
“Who would say, ‘happily’? Somebody who thinks they’re a star,” Kaplan stated. “He thinks stars like him can get away with it.”
Carroll testified earlier within the trial that the previous president had raped her in a dressing room of Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan after they’d an opportunity encounter at that retailer.
Trump, 76, denies raping the now 79-year-old Carroll and has accused her of creating up the story for political and monetary causes.
He additionally has repeatedly stated Carroll is “not my sort.”
However Kaplan on Monday confirmed jurors a video of Trump’s deposition taken final fall. He was requested a few picture of him, Carroll, her then-husband and Trump’s then-wife Ivana Trump at an occasion from the Eighties.
“That is Marla,” Trump says on that tape in regards to the picture, figuring out Carroll as his different ex-wife, Marla Maples.
Kaplan advised jurors Monday: “He pointed to Ms. Carroll, who he says isn’t his sort, and mistook her for Marla Maples.”
Carroll “is strictly his sort and he repeated it twice and solely modified when his lawyer pointed it out,” Kaplan stated. “He made up an excuse for why he made a mistake, saying it was blurry, and you recognize it is in no way blurry … E. Jean Carroll is a former cheerleader from Indiana, was precisely his sort.”
A picture that was introduced as an exhibit throughout the Carroll v. Trump civil trial, by which former Elle journal recommendation columnist E. Jean Carroll accuses former President Donald Trump of raping her in a division retailer dressing room within the mid-Nineties and of defamation, which was obtained by Reuters on Could 5, 2023.
EJ Carroll Authorized Group Handout | By way of Reuters
Trump’s lawyer Joseph Tacopina is ready to present his closing argument later Monday.
Trump, in contrast to Carroll, has not appeared in particular person for the trial.
The decide within the case had given Tacopina till Sunday afternoon to vary his choice to not have Trump testify in his personal protection. However that deadline handed with out the lawyer telling the decide that Trump would take the stand Monday.
Trump, who’s the main contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, was criminally charged final month by the Manhattan District Legal professional for allegedly falsifying enterprise information associated to a 2016 hush cash cost his then-lawyer made to a porn star, Stormy Daniels, earlier than the election that yr.
He has pleaded not responsible in that case.
Trump additionally faces a number of legal investigations for his efforts to overturn his loss within the 2020 election to President Joe Biden, and in reference to failing to give up authorities information, lots of them labeled, when he left the White Home.
Correction: This story was up to date to mirror that E. Jean Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan spoke throughout the closing argument to jurors within the civil trial. A earlier model of the story misspelled Kaplan’s identify.
