Trump won’t testify in E. Jean Carroll trial after judge’s deadline passes
Judge Lewis Kaplan had given Trump a Sunday deadline for an answer.
Donald Trump will not testify in writer E. Jean Carroll’s civil defamation and battery trial after a deadline passed Sunday afternoon without the former president filing a motion to reopen the case.
The two sides each shelved their case Friday after Trump refused to testify in his own defense, but Judge Lewis Kaplan gave Trump until Sunday to reconsider and gave Trump an afternoon deadline to file a motion to seek retrial for the sole purpose of testimony, in light of remarks Trump made while golfing in Europe suggesting he was returning to New York to confront his accuser.
Carroll, who filed the lawsuit in November, alleges Trump defamed her in his post on Truth Social, calling her allegations “a hoax and a lie” and saying, “This woman is not my type!” when he said hers Claim denied Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s.
The former Elle magazine columnist added a battery charge to a recently passed New York law that allows adult survivors of sexual abuse to sue their alleged attacker regardless of the statute of limitations. Trump has denied all allegations of raping or defaming Carroll.
Former advice columnist E. Jean Carroll arrives at Manhattan Federal Court for her lawsuit against former President Donald Trump May 4, 2023 in New York.
John Minchillo/AP, FILE
Each side is expected to issue final statements on Monday. The judge is then expected to indict the jury on Tuesday, followed by the start of deliberations.
This month’s trial comes as Trump visits the White House for a third time while facing numerous legal challenges related to the January 6 attack on the Capitol, his handling of classified material after leaving the White House and possible Trying to interfere in Georgia’s 2020 faces voting.
