Donald Trump Won’t Testify In E. Jean Carroll Case: Lawyer

Donald Trump’s lawyer confirmed on Tuesday that the former president will not testify in the rape case brought forward by advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, multiple news outlets reported. Carroll sued Trump for battery and defamation, alleging that he had raped her in the mid-1990s at Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury department store in Manhattan. She first came forward with these allegations in 2019.

According to Politico, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan asked Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina several times whether the former president would testify. On Tuesday, Tacopina confirmed that Trump had decided not to. But jurors will still hear from him at the trial, as the court is expected to hear a 45-minute videotaped deposition of Trump responding to Carroll’s allegations. According to NBC News, Kaplan said there was no need for Trump to testify live and that Carroll “has a right to play Donald Trump’s deposition at trial.” The possibility of Trump taking the stand was unlikely, as the former president has been absent so far, including during Carroll’s emotional testimony last week. Carroll told the court that Trump had asked her to help him buy a lingerie gift while they were in the lingerie section of the store. She said he asked her to try on a lace bodysuit, but she declined. Trump then allegedly pushed her against the dressing room wall and sexually assaulted her.