Trump's Lawyer Makes Closing Arguments in Carroll Rape Trial: Live Updates - The New York Times

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After two weeks, a jury is about to consider whether the former president should be held liable for a sexual assault that the plaintiff says happened decades ago.

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ImageE. Jean Carroll has asked for monetary damages and a retraction of Donald J. Trump's statements about her.Credit...Jefferson Siegel for The New York Times PinnedUpdated May 8, 2023, 2:49 p.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 2:49 p.m. ET

Benjamin Weiser, Lola Fadulu, Kate Christobek and Daniel Victor

After two weeks, the jury is up next.

After a two-week trial examining accusations that former President Donald J. Trump raped a woman decades ago, a jury in Manhattan federal court will now decide whether he is guilty of battery and defamation.

E. Jean Carroll, a 79-year-old former columnist for Elle magazine, accused Mr. Trump of raping her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in the mid-1990s. If found liable, Mr. Trump could be made to pay monetary damages and retract statements he made casting aspersions on Ms. Carroll and her case.

Both sides delivered closing arguments on Monday. Roberta Kaplan, a lawyer for Ms. Carroll who delivered a 75-minute closing, reminded the jury that no one, not even a former president, is above the law.

"Donald Trump's defense here is essentially that there is a vast conspiracy against him," Ms. Kaplan said. "Donald Trump wants and needs you to disregard all the evidence that you heard in this case."

Mr. Trump's lawyers, who called no witnesses, began their appeal to the jury in the afternoon, portraying the accusations as improbable because the store was a public place and Mr. Trump was already famous.

"It's the most ridiculous, disgusting story. It's just made up," Mr. Trump's lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, told the jurors.

Mr. Trump has denied all wrongdoing and has called the allegations a "hoax."

The jury consists of six men and three women, all of whom were poker-faced in rarely showing their true feelings about the testimony.

The trial has forced participants to relive events of decades ago, and it comes amid a flurry of legal actions aimed at Mr. Trump, 76, as he tries to regain office. Among the case's notable moments:

• Ms. Carroll gave a visceral account of an event that she says marked the end of her romantic life.

• Mr. Trump in a videotaped deposition reiterated his earlier claim that he would not have raped Ms. Carroll because he did not find her appealing and declined to repudiate vulgar comments he made in 2005 about being entitled as a celebrity to kiss women and grab them by their genitals.

• The former president made a campaign appearance as testimony continued in which he mocked many of his legal opponents — but not Ms. Carroll.

Show moreContinue reading the main storyMay 8, 2023, 2:50 p.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 2:50 p.m. ET

Lola Fadulu

In closing argument, Trump's lawyer posits a conspiracy among a group of women.

ImageDonald J. Trump's lawyer said he didn't need to call witnesses to discredit a story that was invented.Credit...Dave Sanders for The New York Times

E. Jean Carroll's rape accusation against former President Donald J. Trump does not make sensebecause she and several friends invented it to ruin Mr. Trump's political life and sell Ms. Carroll's memoir, his lawyer, said Monday.

Mr. Trump did not testify during this trial, and the lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, said there was no real reason for Mr. Trump to, because the sexual assault Ms. Carroll said happened in a luxury department store dressing room in the mid-1990s didn't happen.

"If something is completely made up, the only way to defend yourself against that accusation is by challenging the people who made it up and the story itself," Mr. Tacopina said.

That's exactly what Mr. Tacopina did for more than two hours. He challenged Ms. Carroll's testimony, arguing that many details were hard to believe. He said that Dr. Leslie Lebowitz, a trauma expert who testified, was not credible and was instead an "excuse machine" hired to "explain away all of the unexplainable."

Mr. Tacopina said that two friends who testified to corroborate Ms. Carroll's story, Lisa Birnbach and Carol Martin, had schemed with Ms. Carroll. Mr. Tacopina focused on their political affiliations and how much they hated Mr. Trump.

Both women said in court that Ms. Carroll told them about the encounter with Mr. Trump shortly after it happened and how Ms. Carroll forbade them from speaking of it again.

Mr. Tacopina said there was "no plausible explanation at all for why they didn't talk amongst themselves even once before the book, except for the obvious: The book was made up."

Show moreMay 8, 2023, 2:48 p.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 2:48 p.m. ET

Kate Christobek

During the trial, Tacopina remained relatively restrained during his cross-examinations. Today, he was clearly in attack mode. He often grew breathless. And a few times, he banged his hands against the lectern.

May 8, 2023, 2:49 p.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 2:49 p.m. ET

Kate Christobek

Tacopina touched on most aspects of Roberta Kaplan's closing argument on Carroll's behalf. Notably absent: any mention of Trump confusing Ms. Carroll with his ex-wife, Marla Maples, when looking at the picture during the deposition. This will almost certainly come up again during the plaintiff's rebuttal.

May 8, 2023, 2:42 p.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 2:42 p.m. ET

Karen Zraick

Tacopina ramps up his rhetoric in his last moments before the jury. "This jury is blessed with an abundance of street smarts and we know reality from fiction," he says. He warns the jurors they will have to live with the decision for the rest of their lives: "You and you alone are the ones empowered to make sure that the rule of law is upheld."

May 8, 2023, 2:47 p.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 2:47 p.m. ET

Karen Zraick

As Trump's lawyer ends his closing argument, he says, "I ask you all to please, to please have the courage to do what is right here."

May 8, 2023, 2:35 p.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 2:35 p.m. ET

Karen Zraick

The judge asks the jury to disregard a remark by Tacopina about George Conway recommending that Carroll sue. The judge also sustains an objection over Tacopina's references to the 2012 "Law & Order" episode, warning the lawyer to stop trying to interject. "Counsel, one more word," the judge said sternly.

May 8, 2023, 2:04 p.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 2:04 p.m. ET

Karen Zraick

As he approaches the two-hour mark, Trump's lawyer says that Carroll's friends were repeating her accusation as she described it in her book, rather than from their own memories. Carroll said she told them about the attack after it happened, and they both testified to that effect.

May 8, 2023, 2:06 p.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 2:06 p.m. ET

Stephen Merelman

Joseph Tacopina also says that the prominent anti-Trump lawyer George Conway "got his hooks into Ms. Carroll" and persuaded her to file a lawsuit against his client.

May 8, 2023, 1:45 p.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 1:45 p.m. ET

Lola Fadulu

Who are the lawyers representing Donald Trump?

ImageJoseph Tacopina has argued that E. Jean Carroll invented her story for political motives.Credit...Jefferson Siegel for The New York Times

Former President Donald J. Trump's defense team in E. Jean Caroll's civil suit includes Joseph Tacopina, a lawyer who is also representing Mr. Trump against criminal fraud charges brought by the Manhattan district attorney's office.

Working with Mr. Tacopina is Alina Habba. She is joined by her law partner Michael T. Madaio, and Mr. Tacopina is joined by his partners on the case, Chad Derek Seigel and Matthew G. DeOreo.

Mr. Tacopina, the son of Italian immigrants, graduated from Poly Prep High School in Brooklyn and Skidmore College. He decided to pursue law at the University of Bridgeport after reading "Fatal Vision," a book about an Army doctor who killed his wife and two children.

He has extensive experience representing high-profile clients in New York's state and federal courts. Mr. Tacopina's first major case was defending one of the "Morgue Boys," a group of police officers who were charged with robbing Brooklyn residents and drug dealers; they were acquitted in 1995.

Mr. Tacopina has also been on both sides of rape litigation: He represented a police officer who was accused of raping a drunk woman and represented a woman who accused two New Jersey Transit Police Department officers of attacking her.

"I believed in both cases I was on the side of justice," Mr. Tacopina told The New York Times in 2011.

His other clients have included Michael Jackson, Sean Hannity and the rapper A$AP Rocky.

Ms. Habba also has experience with rape cases. She represented plaintiffs in a lawsuit against a Connecticut municipality for the rape of children by a town employee over the course of several decades.

She began working for Mr. Trump in 2021, when she filed a lawsuit against The New York Times, three of the newspaper's reporters and Mr. Trump's niece, Mary L. Trump. That case is still pending.

Ms. Habba also filed a lawsuit on Mr. Trump's behalf against nearly three dozen of his political adversaries. A federal judge in Florida ruled in January that Mr. Trump and Ms. Habba had to pay nearly $1 million in sanctions for filing a frivolous lawsuit.

She is also representing Mr. Trump in the lawsuit filed against him by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Show moreContinue reading the main storyMay 8, 2023, 1:44 p.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 1:44 p.m. ET

Karen Zraick

Tacopina is trying to present the case as entirely political. He points to remarks by Carroll and her friends Lisa Birnbach and Carol Martin, charging they "colluded" to harm Trump with an outlandish tale. "Amazing, odd, inconceivable, unbelievable," Tacopina said. "Everything in this case is one of these things."

May 8, 2023, 1:28 p.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 1:28 p.m. ET

Karen Zraick

Tacopina says bluntly that E. Jean Carroll invented the rape accusation to sell her book and was trying to capitalize on anti-Trump sentiment. He shows emails between Carroll and her friend Lisa Birnbach about selling books. "It became her lifestyle," he said.

ImageCredit...Anna Watts for The New York TimesMay 8, 2023, 1:21 p.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 1:21 p.m. ET

Karen Zraick

"Let's not forget this one," Tacopina says as he shows a photo that Carroll posted to Instagram from her walking tour of "hideous men" of New York City. She is smiling and standing next to a Trump impersonator. "She's gleefully posing with his likeliness," he says.

May 8, 2023, 1:21 p.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 1:21 p.m. ET

Karen Zraick

He goes on to say that she never made a police report decades ago because the attack "never happened."

May 8, 2023, 1:11 p.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 1:11 p.m. ET

Karen Zraick

Joseph Tacopina, Trump's lawyer, disputes Carroll's claim that she lost her job at Elle because of Trump's attacks after she went public with the rape accusation. He says she was fired because Elle was upset that she gave her story to New York Magazine, a competitor. The article, an excerpt from her book, was published in 2019 under the headline "Hideous Men."

May 8, 2023, 1:08 p.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 1:08 p.m. ET

Karen Zraick

Tacopina again accuses Carroll of inventing her account, saying it was ripped from a similar "Law & Order" episode. He asks why Carroll never let go of her purse during the alleged assault, why her tights never ripped, why no one else saw it occurring.

May 8, 2023, 12:59 p.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 12:59 p.m. ET

Lola Fadulu

The defense attacked Carroll's credibility, suggesting she had motives to lie.

ImageJoseph Tacopina, a lawyer for Donald. J. Trump, used his cross-examination of E. Jean Carroll to make her story seem implausible.Credit...Anna Watts for The New York Times

"It all comes down to: Do you believe the unbelievable?" Joseph Tacopina, a lawyer for Donald. J. Trump, said during his opening statement in the civil trial in which the writer E. Jean Carroll has accused the former president of rape.

Over the course of two separate days, Mr. Tacopina questioned Ms. Carroll on nearly every detail of her allegation that Mr. Trump had raped her in a department store dressing room, a claim that she first made in an excerpt of a 2019 memoir previewed in New York magazine.

Mr. Tacopina sought to elicit testimony that suggested to the jury that Ms. Carroll had motives to make up her allegation, including politics, money and fame.

He used his cross-examination to make her story seem implausible. He focused on Ms. Carroll's inability to remember the date she said the attack occurred. He asked how she managed to push Mr. Trump away from her with her knee even though she said he had pulled down her tights. He also asked how she could have possibly held onto her purse the whole time as she claimed, and he questioned why she had not gone to the police afterward.

Mr. Tacopina also repeatedly asked Ms. Carroll why she had not screamed during the encounter.

"Even though you understood you were in the middle of this supposed battle, you never screamed at Donald Trump or screamed for help?" Mr. Tacopina asked during the first day of his cross-examination.

"I'm not a screamer," Ms. Carroll replied.

Later in his questioning, Mr. Tacopina asked her again whether she had screamed, and Ms. Carroll appeared to be visibly irritated.

"I'm telling you, he raped me, whether I screamed or not," Ms. Carroll said, raising her voice.

Ms. Carroll's lawyers objected to many of Mr. Tacopina's questions, arguing that they were repetitive and "argumentative." Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of Federal District Court ruled in favor of many of those objections.

Show moreMay 8, 2023, 12:41 p.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 12:41 p.m. ET

Karen Zraick

Tacopina addresses the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape, which Kaplan referenced several times in her closing arguments. He says Trump's comments about grabbing women were "crude" and "rude" and that Trump had apologized. "He said that," Tacopina conceded. "But that doesn't make Ms. Carroll's unbelievable story believable."

May 8, 2023, 12:36 p.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 12:36 p.m. ET

Karen Zraick

In his thick New York accent, Tacopina strikes an incredulous tone as he turns to the account of another woman, Jessica Leeds, now 81, who said that Trump molested her during a commercial flight in the 1970s. He asks why she came forward only once Trump was running for president. "It's ridiculous," he says.

ImageCredit...Jefferson Siegel for The New York TimesMay 8, 2023, 12:33 p.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 12:33 p.m. ET

Karen Zraick

Tacopina is trying to cast doubt on the account, because the store was a public place and Trump was already well known. He discusses why he didn't call any witnesses, saying there was no logical person to call since the date of the alleged assault was unknown.

May 8, 2023, 12:34 p.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 12:34 p.m. ET

Karen Zraick

Roberta Kaplan, Carroll's lawyer, went to great lengths to explain why Carroll did not know the exact date, and said there were several factors that indicated the episode occurred in the early spring of 1996. Those included what Carroll said she was wearing — a wool dress and tights but no coat, pointing to slightly chilly weather — and the fact that it was dark when she exited the store.

May 8, 2023, 12:25 p.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 12:25 p.m. ET

Karen Zraick

Tacopina plays tape from Trump's deposition in which he denies that an assault took place. "It's the most ridiculous, disgusting story, it's just made up," he says.

May 8, 2023, 12:26 p.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 12:26 p.m. ET

Karen Zraick

He also disparages Carroll as "a wack job" and "mentally sick" on the tape. "I have no idea who she is, it came out of the blue, she's accusing me of rape," he says.

May 8, 2023, 12:19 p.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 12:19 p.m. ET

Karen Zraick

Tacopina says that jurors' feelings about Trump are irrelevant: "Politicians don't make this country great, jurors do." He says that E. Jean Carroll abused the system by bringing a false claim for "money, status, political reasons."

ImageCredit...Jefferson Siegel for The New York TimesMay 8, 2023, 12:17 p.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 12:17 p.m. ET

Karen Zraick

"We are going to take a journey to justice," Trump's lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, tells the jurors.

May 8, 2023, 12:10 p.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 12:10 p.m. ET

Karen Zraick

The court is back in session after a brief lunch break. Lawyers going over procedural matters before Trump's defense team starts its closing argument.

May 8, 2023, 11:34 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 11:34 a.m. ET

The New York Times

E. Jean Carroll and the women who corroborated her story spoke to The New York Times.

ImageCarol Martin, left, dissuaded Ms. Carroll from speaking with the police. Lisa Birnbach told Ms. Carroll she had been raped.Credit...Left, Jefferson Siegel for The New York Times; right, Anna Watts for The New York Times

Carol Martin and Lisa Birnbach testified at the trial that E. Jean Carroll telephoned them shortly after the events to tell her story. The women all spoke to a New York Times reporter for an episode of the podcast The Daily in 2019. Hear them in their own words:

Continue reading the main storyMay 8, 2023, 11:22 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 11:22 a.m. ET

Kate Christobek

We are now on a break until noon. Next we will hear from a lawyer for Trump, most likely Joseph Tacopina.

May 8, 2023, 11:19 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 11:19 a.m. ET

Kate Christobek

Roberta Kaplan finishes her closing by saying that Carroll, her client, delivered courageous, consistent and clear testimony over two days. She says that the overwhelming weight of the evidence establishes that Trump sexually assaulted Carroll and that he defamed her after she spoke up publicly.

May 8, 2023, 11:14 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 11:14 a.m. ET

Kate Christobek

"I'm not going to stand here and tell you how much you should award," Kaplan says of damages. But she asks them to consider that millions of people heard and likely believed Trump's statements about Carroll.

ImageCredit...Sophie Park for The New York TimesMay 8, 2023, 11:08 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 11:08 a.m. ET

Kate Christobek

"Donald Trump's defense here is essentially that there is a vast conspiracy against him," Kaplan says. "Donald Trump wants and needs you to disregard all the evidence that you heard in this case." She follows up: "Does that make any sense here at all?"

May 8, 2023, 11:06 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 11:06 a.m. ET

Kate Christobek

Two other women told the jury they had been sexually assaulted by Trump.

ImageCredit...Anna Watts for The New York Times

During her opening statement, a lawyer for the columnist E. Jean Carroll explained what she called Donald J. Trump's "clear pattern" of sexual assault.

"Start with a friendly encounter in a semipublic place," the lawyer, Shawn G. Crowley, said. "All of a sudden: Pounce, kiss, grab, grope. Don't wait."

"And when they speak up about what happened, attack," she added. "Humiliate them. Call them liars. Call them too ugly to assault."

To prove this point, Ms. Carroll's lawyers called two women who claimed they had been sexually abused by Donald Trump to testify last week: Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff.

Ms. Leeds, a retired stockbroker, said she met Mr. Trump on an airplane in the late 1970s after a flight attendant invited her to move from coach to first class. She sat in the last open seat, next to Mr. Trump.

During the flight, Ms. Leeds testified Mr. Trump "decided to kiss me and grope me." She said the unwanted touching came "out of the blue" and "like he had 40 zillion hands."

Ms. Leeds said Mr. Trump then put his hand up her skirt, causing her to wriggle away and return to her original seat.

After Ms. Leeds went public with her story during Mr. Trump's 2016 presidential run, Mr. Trump denied her accusation during a campaign rally, demeaning her. "Believe me, she would not be my first choice," he said. "That I can tell you."

One day after Ms. Leeds testified, Natasha Stoynoff took the witness stand.

A former writer for People magazine, Ms. Stoynoff said she traveled to Mar-a-Lago in 2005 to write a profile of Mr. Trump and his then-pregnant wife, Melania, on their first anniversary. She testified that Mr. Trump invited her into a room, shut the door and kissed her, holding her against a wall.

After the encounter, Ms. Stoynoff told a few friends including her direct superior. A decade later, Ms. Stoynoff went public with her accusation after Mr. Trump denied kissing women without consent during a 2016 presidential debate.

Mr. Trump referenced Ms. Stoynoff's allegations at a different campaign rally, two days after he denied Ms. Leeds's accusations.

"Look at her," Mr. Trump said of Ms. Stoynoff. "I don't think so."

Show moreMay 8, 2023, 11:03 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 11:03 a.m. ET

Kate Christobek

Kaplan is going through what she calls "Trump's MO" in assaulting women, and describes both Jessica Leeds's and Natasha Stoynoff's allegations against Trump. After she tells their stories, Kaplan says, "Sound familiar?"

May 8, 2023, 11:03 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 11:03 a.m. ET

Kate Christobek

"Three different women, decades apart, but one single pattern of behavior,"' Kaplan says. "In that respect, what happened to E. Jean Carroll is not unique."

May 8, 2023, 10:59 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 10:59 a.m. ET

Kate Christobek

From the beginning, Carroll's lawyers have argued that this is not a he-said, she-said case, and the jury doesn't have to rely on Carroll alone to find Trump liable. Kaplan reminds the jury of this, and points to all the other witnesses who have corroborated her story.

May 8, 2023, 10:55 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 10:55 a.m. ET

Kate Christobek

Kaplan, Carroll's lawyer, is addressing a matter that will certainly come up later today during the defense's closing arguments: that Carroll and her friends Lisa Birnbach and Carol Martin are part of some "coordinated conspiracy" to take down Trump. She says, "Yes, they oppose Donald Trump politically, but that has nothing to do with this case."

ImageCredit...Jefferson Siegel for The New York TimesMay 8, 2023, 10:46 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 10:46 a.m. ET

Kate Christobek

Kaplan is now discussing some parts of her client's testimony that may seem "weird or unusual": that Carroll kept the dress she was wearing on the day of the alleged rape, shopped again at Bergdorf Goodman and watched "The Apprentice," Trump's television show.

May 8, 2023, 10:47 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 10:47 a.m. ET

Kate Christobek

Kaplan says this behavior is consistent with Dr. Lebowitz's testimony, saying that Carroll needed to "avoid the fact that she had been negatively impacted in any way by Donald Trump."

May 8, 2023, 10:37 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 10:37 a.m. ET

Kate Christobek

Trump's lawyer questioned Carroll's behavior after the encounter. "People tend to act in very strange ways, in ways that may seem irrational," after trauma, Kaplan says, referring to the testimony by expert witness Dr. Leslie Lebowitz.

May 8, 2023, 10:38 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 10:38 a.m. ET

Kate Christobek

Trump's lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, had asked Carroll on the witness stand why she did not scream. Kaplan reminds the jury that Lebowitz said that screaming "is one of the least likely things that actually occur."

May 8, 2023, 10:39 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 10:39 a.m. ET

Kate Christobek

"He raped me whether I screamed or not," Carroll said.

May 8, 2023, 10:31 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 10:31 a.m. ET

Kate Christobek

Kaplan tells the jury that Carroll lost out on so much of life, referring to her testimony that she could never again have an intimate relationship with a man.

May 8, 2023, 10:29 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 10:29 a.m. ET

Lola Fadulu, Kate Christobek and Benjamin Weiser

E. Jean Carroll described an assault in minute detail and sparred with Trump's lawyers.

ImageCredit...Jefferson Siegel for The New York Times

Across three days of vivid and sometimes contentious testimony, E. Jean Carroll recounted for a jury the day she said Donald J. Trump attacked her, sparring with a lawyer for the former president as she told her story.

Ms. Carroll, a former magazine columnist, said in a Manhattan federal court that the encounter with Mr. Trump started with banter after he stopped her at the 58th Street exit of the Bergdorf Goodman department store nearly three decades ago.

Ms. Carroll said Mr. Trump asked her to help select a gift for a female friend. "I love to give advice, and here was Donald Trump asking me for advice about buying a present," she said.

She described to the jury how they went to the lingerie section and stumbled upon a gray-blue bodysuit. Mr. Trump directed her to "go put this on," she said. She declined and told him to put it on instead — banter that she described as "jesting and joshing."

Then, she said, Mr. Trump motioned her inside the dressing room, immediately shut the door and shoved her against the wall.

Ms. Carroll said Mr. Trump used his weight to pin her and pulled down her tights. She grew emotional as she spoke. "I was pushing him back," she said, adding, "I was almost too frightened to think."

"His fingers went into my vagina, which was extremely painful," Ms. Carroll said. Then, she said, he inserted his penis.

Ms. Carroll said she used her knee to push Mr. Trump away and fled.

The event had lifelong consequences, she said: "It left me unable to ever have a romantic life again."

Mr. Trump has denied Ms. Carroll's allegations. During cross-examination, a lawyer for the former president questioned Ms. Carroll about her politics, the decades it took her to come forward and her inability to recall the year that the alleged attack took place.

Mr. Trump's lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, insinuated that Ms. Carroll strategically chose to reveal her story to increase sales of a memoir in which she first publicly brought her allegation.

Ms. Carroll, however, said that she decided to go public after The New York Times's "bombshell" reporting about Harvey Weinstein, which set off the #MeToo movement. She said that telling her story about Mr. Trump might be "a way to change the culture of sexual violence."

The lawyer pressed Ms. Carroll repeatedly about basic facts, probing for inconsistencies and asking about her inability to remember precisely when in 1995 or 1996 the encounter occurred.

"I wish to heaven we could give you a date," she replied.

Mr. Tacopina also questioned Ms. Carroll about whether she had screamed for help.

"I'm not a screamer," Ms. Carroll responded. "I was fighting," she said. "You can't beat up on me for not screaming."

Mr. Tacopina said he was not, but Ms. Carroll, her voice rising, said from the witness stand that women often keep silent about attacks because they fear being asked what they could have done to stop it.

"They are always asked, 'Why didn't you scream?'" Ms. Carroll said.

"He raped me, whether I screamed or not," she declared.

Show moreContinue reading the main storyMay 8, 2023, 10:25 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 10:25 a.m. ET

Kate Christobek

Roberta Kaplan, E. Jean Carroll's lawyer, is now recounting her story of a sexual assault in the lingerie department dressing room. She says that Trump pinned Carroll against the wall and reached up her dress. Kaplan then says that Trump "grabbed her by the pussy" -- repeating the vulgar language Trump used in the "Access Hollywood" video.

May 8, 2023, 10:17 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 10:17 a.m. ET

Kate Christobek

Two witnesses said Bergdorf Goodman could be thinly populated.

ImageE. Jean Carroll said she was attacked in a department largely devoid of people.Credit...Victor Llorente for The New York Times

To some New Yorkers, Bergdorf Goodman is the epitome of luxury, a one-of-a-kind high-fashion mecca.

To the nine New Yorkers on the jury that will decide whether Donald J. Trump raped E. Jean Carroll, Bergdorf's is where the attack either happened or didn't happen on a Thursday evening in spring 1996.

Ms. Carroll testified that at the time of the incident, Bergdorf's was relatively empty. She said that there were no attendants in the lingerie section and that the door to the dressing room where she says the rape happened had been left open to allow her and Mr. Trump in. She also testified that no employees attended to her and Mr. Trump while they were in the store.

Mr. Trump's lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, has challenged Ms. Carroll's description of the store, and has stressed in court that she never tried to obtain surveillance video of the alleged attack.

Ms. Carroll called two former Bergdorf employees to the witness stand to bolster her account.

Cheryl Beall, who served as manager of the women's store in 1996, said that Thursday nights were normally rather quiet. She said the sixth floor, where the lingerie department is, was less busy than other floors.

She also said employees would commonly step away from their posts to take a break or help other clients, and that dressing room doors would often be left open despite an unwritten policy of keeping them closed.

When high-profile clients such as Mr. Trump entered, Ms. Beall said, employees were instructed to be "very discreet."

"It is very much part of the Bergdorf culture to provide privacy and discretion," Ms. Beall said.

Robert Salerno, who oversaw security at the time, also testified on behalf of Ms. Carroll. Mr. Salerno said that Bergdorf's had only a few security cameras at the time and that the tapes were not maintained very long. They were often destroyed or taped over, he said.

Show moreMay 8, 2023, 10:16 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 10:16 a.m. ET

Kate Christobek

Kaplan is reminding the jury of the two former Bergdorf Goodman employees who have testified in this trial, Cheryl Beall and Robert Salerno. She says that Carroll's memory of Bergdorf's is "completely consistent" with what the jury heard from these witnesses.

May 8, 2023, 10:09 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 10:09 a.m. ET

Kate Christobek

"It is true that Ms. Carroll cannot recall the precise date of the attack," Kaplan tells the jury. Kaplan argues that this is because Carroll was "trying to come to grips" with the sexual assault and wasn't focused on the date.

May 8, 2023, 10:14 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 10:14 a.m. ET

Kate Christobek

Trump's legal team has narrowed in on Carroll's confusion over the date of the alleged attack during the past two weeks.

May 8, 2023, 10:03 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 10:03 a.m. ET

Kate Christobek

In the end, Trump did not testify at the trial, leaving Carroll to define him on her terms.

ImageWith Donald Trump not attending or testifying at the trial, E. Jean Carroll and her legal team have had the opportunity to define him on their own terms.Credit...Kirsten Luce for The New York Times

For the past two weeks, Donald J. Trump's lawyers have tried to paint E. Jean Carroll's rape allegations as "unbelievable." At the same time, they have left open the possibility that Mr. Trump could come to court and deny the accusations himself.

On Sunday night, that door officially closed.

Last week, Mr. Trump's lawyer Joseph Tacopina told the court his client would not be testifying or attending the trial.

But early on Thursday, at a golf course in Ireland, Mr. Trump indicated that he might come to court. "I have to go back for a woman that made a false accusation against me, and I have a judge who is extremely hostile," he said.

In response, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who is presiding over the trial in federal court in Manhattan, gave Mr. Trump one more opportunity to reconsider: Mr. Tacopina had until 5 p.m. on Sunday to file a motion asking the judge to allow Mr. Trump to testify.

Yet no motion was filed on Sunday night, and Mr. Trump is not expected to appear in court on Monday.

By not testifying or offering his own account, Mr. Trump is depending on his lawyer's efforts to erode Ms. Carroll's credibility. Mr. Tacopina has questioned every aspect of her story, highlighting details he has suggested are implausible and questioning her confusion over details. He has also strongly suggested in cross-examination that she has a political motive to lie.

If the jury finds Ms. Carroll's story "unbelievable," Mr. Trump is not likely to be found liable.

Still, Mr. Trump's decision not to testify or attend the trial has given Ms. Carroll the opportunity to define Mr. Trump on her own terms. Most notably, her legal team, led by Roberta Kaplan, offered selected clips from Mr. Trump's depositions, rallies and debates that reflect the person they want the jury to see: a celebrity who thinks his star-power gives him the ability to make unwanted sexual advances on women with impunity.

Show moreContinue reading the main storyMay 8, 2023, 10:02 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 10:02 a.m. ET

Kate Christobek

Kaplan reminds the jury that Trump called no witnesses to back up anything he said. She follows up by saying, "He didn't even bother to show up here in person."

May 8, 2023, 9:59 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 9:59 a.m. ET

Kate Christobek

Kaplan is telling the jury about Trump's "playbook" with women, and reminds them of two others who have testified that Trump attacked them: Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff.

May 8, 2023, 9:51 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 9:51 a.m. ET

Kate Christobek

Kaplan starts her closing argument by reminding the jury that no one, not even a former president, is above the law. She tells the jury that it is their job to uphold that principle.

ImageCredit...Anna Watts for The New York TimesMay 8, 2023, 9:48 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 9:48 a.m. ET

Kate Christobek

Roberta Kaplan, Carroll's lawyer, will be giving the closing statement. Kaplan was in the news over the weekend after Trump's video depositions in this case were released to the public. During the deposition, Kaplan asked Trump to explain what he meant when he said Carroll was not his type. "You wouldn't be a choice of mine, either, to be honest," Trump responded. "I wouldn't under any circumstances have any interest in you."

May 8, 2023, 9:47 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 9:47 a.m. ET

Lola Fadulu

The jury is composed of six men and three women, hailing from Manhattan, Westchester County and the Bronx. They work in a variety of industries and jobs — one works for the New York City Public Library, another for a hospital, and a third as a building janitor.

May 8, 2023, 9:46 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 9:46 a.m. ET

Kate Christobek

The jurors are entering the courtroom. Over the past two weeks, the jurors have remained attentive, frequently positioning their chairs in the direction of the witnesses and dutifully examining the exhibits on the monitors in front of them. But they have stayed poker-faced, rarely showing their true feelings about the testimony.

May 8, 2023, 9:45 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 9:45 a.m. ET

Kate Christobek

We are at Manhattan federal court for closing arguments in E. Jean Carroll's civil rape and defamation trial against former President Donald J. Trump.

May 8, 2023, 9:37 a.m. ETMay 8, 2023, 9:37 a.m. ET

Lola Fadulu

Here's a closer look at the E. Jean Carroll trial, day by day.

ImageThe civil rape trial of the writer E. Jean Carroll against former President Donald J. Trump took place over two weeks.Credit...Anna Watts for The New York Times

Over two weeks, a jury of six men and three women heard harrowing testimony in the civil rape trial of the writer E. Jean Carroll against former President Donald J. Trump. Here's how the case unfolded.

April 25: Opening Statements

On the trial's first day, Ms. Carroll's lawyers told the jury that not only did Mr. Trump sexually assault her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room, but that they would present testimony from two other women to show a pattern. Ms. Carroll's lawyers described how Ms. Carroll was harmed by not only the encounter but also by coming forward.

Mr. Trump's lawyers told the jury that Ms. Carroll had invented the story for politics, money and fame. They said they would highlight the inconsistencies in Ms. Carroll's testimony and focused on the fact that she could not specify a date on which the alleged rape occurred.

April 26, April 27, May 1: Carroll Testifies

Ms. Carroll took the stand for three days describing what she says happened in a luxury department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. She described how she ran into Mr. Trump, how he asked her to help him pick out a gift and how he then sexually assaulted her.

Ms. Carroll told the jury how she wasn't able to have sex or have a romantic relationship after the encounter.

May 2: Lisa Birnbach and Jessica Leeds Testify

The jury heard from one of Ms. Carroll's friends, Lisa Birnbach, who said Ms. Carroll told her about the alleged attack minutes after it happened, describing her as "breathless, hyperventilating, emotional." Ms. Birnbach said she told Ms. Carroll to go to the police, but Ms. Carroll decided against it.

Jessica Leeds, who has accused Mr. Trump of groping her and kissing her without her consent on an airplane in the late 1970s, told her story to the jury. Mr. Trump has also denied her account.

A former Bergdorf Goodman employee also testified, along with an expert who said Ms. Carroll's behavior reflected common responses to traumatic events.

May 3: Cande Carroll and Natasha Stoynoff Testify

Ms. Carroll's sister backed up Ms. Carroll's testimony that she did not tell her family about the encounter in the dressing room because her relatives avoided such personal issues.

Natasha Stoynoff described to the jury how she said Mr. Trump kissed her without her consent when she traveled to Mar-a-Lago for a story about his one-year wedding anniversary to Melania Trump.

May 4: Carol Martin and Ashlee Humphreys Testify

Carol Martin, another friend, testified how Ms. Carroll had told her story to her days afterward. Ms. Martin said she was "floored," and advised Ms. Carroll against going to the police because Mr. Trump's lawyers would "bury her."

Ashlee Humphreys, a professor of sociology and communication at Northwestern University, described a report she put together on the harm caused by Mr. Trump's October 2022 statement on Truth Social, the social media company he founded, in which he denied the allegation and called Ms. Carroll's case "a complete con job" and said she made up the allegation to sell her memoir.

Ms. Humphreys said it would cost as much as $2.7 million to run a campaign that would repair Ms. Carroll's reputation.

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