Writer E. Jean Carroll took the witness stand for her civil lawsuit against former President Donald Trump Wednesday, telling jurors: “I’m here because Trump raped me.”
When she stepped forward to say what happened in 2019, Trump “lied and shattered my reputation and I’m trying to get my life back,” Carroll said at the start of her testimony in federal court in lower Manhattan.
Carroll sued Trump for battery over the alleged rape — which she says happened in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s — as well as defamation for his claims that she made up her story to promote sales of her book and raise her public profile.
Trump has denied the allegations, including in posts on his social media website Truth Social on Wednesday morning.
In two statements on the case shortly before testimony was set to begin, Trump called Carroll’s allegations “fraudulent & false” and a “SCAM.”
He also brought up in his posts to Truth Social two topics the judge in the case, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, had previously told both sides not to bring up in front of the jury — one having to do with DNA evidence and the other having to do with the payment of Carroll’s legal fees.
“Your client may be tampering with a new source of potential liability. And I think you know what I mean,” Kaplan told Trump’s attorney, Joe Tacopina.
Tacopina said he would ask Trump not to post about the case.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
