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Jurors on Tuesday will begin deliberating whether Donald Trump raped writer E. Jean Carroll more than two decades ago and then defamed her by claiming she made up the story.
Lawyers for Carroll and the former U.S. president delivered closing arguments on Monday in Manhattan federal court after seven days of a civil trial.
Trump, the front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential field, has denied raping Carroll and accused her of making up the story to drive sales of a 2019 memoir in which she made her claims public.
Carroll, 79, claims Trump, 76, raped her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in 1995 or 1996, and then defamed her by denying it happened. The former Elle magazine advice columnist is seeking unspecified monetary damages.
Her defamation claim concerns an October 2022 post on Trump’s Truth Social platform in which he called her allegations a “complete con job” and “a Hoax and a lie.”
Trump opted not to present a defense at trial, gambling that jurors will find Carroll failed to make a persuasive case.
Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan said during closing arguments that a 2005 “Access Hollywood” video in which Trump says women let him “grab ’em by the pussy” bolstered the accounts of Carroll and other women who have accused Trump of sexual assault.
“He admitted on video to doing exactly the kinds of things that have brought us here to this courtroom,” Kaplan said.
Two of Carroll’s longtime friends testified that she told them about the attack shortly after it occurred and said they believed her. Jurors heard from two other women who said Trump sexually assaulted them in separate incidents decades ago. Trump denies those claims as well.
SOURCE:REUTERS
