Trump will not testify in E. Jean Carroll rape, defamation trial

Donald Trump will not testify at a civil trial challenging the claims made by writer E. Jean Carroll, who said he raped her in a luxury department store dressing room in the 1990s and later defamed her by denying it ever happened.

The former president let a Sunday evening deadline pass without asking the court to appear — even after he failed to show up once over the course of the two-week trial in Manhattan, during which Carroll repeated accusations against Trump that she first made in a 2019 memoir.

Without Trump’s testimony, closing arguments will be made Monday and deliberations will likely begin Tuesday.

Trump’s attorney Joseph Tacopina told Judge Lewis Kaplan on Thursday that his client waived the right to testify and opted not to present a defense in the case.

After the jury left on Thursday, Kaplan asked Tacopina to advise Trump that he had until 5 p.m. Sunday to inform the court whether he would testify.

“We have to know,” Kaplan said Thursday. “So Mr. Trump is not going to be coming?”

https://nypost.com/2023/05/08/trump-will-not-testify-in-e-jean-carroll-rape-defamation-trial/