WASHINGTON: Former US President Donald Trump missed a deadline on Sunday to attend a court and will not testify at a civil trial in a case involving sexual assault on author E Jean Carroll in the 1990s.
Trump’s lawyer Joseph Tacopina informed the judge that Trump had declined to testify during the trial in Manhattan federal court and had chosen not to offer a defence, betting that the jury would find Carroll’s argument to be unpersuasive.
Trump’s legal team told the court on Thursday that he would not appear in the case. Lewis Kaplan, the US District judge, directed Tacopina to tell Trump that he had until Sunday at 5 pm to inform the court whether he wanted to testify after he left for the day on Thursday.
Kaplan on Monday asked the two parties to close arguments. Carroll, 79, accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman departmental store in Manhattan in 1995 or 1996, and he then allegedly defamed her by denying it ever took place.
Carroll filed the case against Trump last year. The former advice writer for Elle Magazine is suing Trump for financial losses.
Trump, president from 2017 to 2021 and is currently hoping to win the Republican nomination for president of the US in 2024, has claimed Carroll made up the allegation to boost sales of her 2019 biography. On Wednesday, the jury watched a video deposition in which Trump denied raping Carroll. In the footage, Trump can be seen leaning over a conference table as Carroll’s attorneys show him the paperwork. “It’s the most ridiculous, disgusting story,” he says. It’s fabricated, she said.
