Ex-US president Donald Trump to not testify in New York rape, defamation trial
Former US President Donald Trump.
Former United States President Donald Trump will not testify at a civil trial in which columnist E.Jean Carroll alleged that he raped her and later defamed her, after letting a Sunday (May 7) deadline pass without asking the court to appear. Trump, 76, was given until 5 pm Sunday by US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan to file a request to testify. Nothing was filed.
Earlier, Trump's attorney Joseph Tacopina told the judge last Thursday that he waived his right to testify in the trial in Manhattan federal court and opted not to present a defence in the case, gambling that jurors would find that Carroll failed to make a persuasive case, the news agency Reuters reported.
ALSO READ | Donald Trump’s official website tries to discredit rape accuser Jean Carroll, claims she’s a sexual harasser
Speaking to Reuters, Tacopina said that the former US president would not testify in the case. Also on Thursday, District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan gave Trump extra time to change his mind and requested to testify. However, Kaplan did not promise to grant such a request to reopen the defence case so that Trump could take the stand.
Trump, a Republican candidate for the 2024 US presidential election, criticised Kaplan, a Bill Clinton appointee, as an “extremely hostile” and “rough judge” who “doesn’t like me very much,” the news agency Associated Press reported.
Jean Carroll, 79, filed a lawsuit last year against Trump claiming that he raped her dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in 1996 and then defamed her by denying it happened.
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Trump meanwhile, said in his deposition that the columnist made it up. Trump called it “a false, disgusting lie” delivered by a “nut job” who was trying to stoke sales of her book. The former president also repeated comments in his statement that she was not his type."If it did happen, it would have been reported within minutes," Trump also said in the deposition.
(With inputs from agencies)
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