Trump trial - live: E Jean Carroll fights tears as she describes ‘extremely painful’ rape in dressing room

E Jean Carroll took the stand in her civil rape trial against Donald Trump on Wednesday and fought back tears as she described the alleged assault in horrifying detail.

The former advice columnist began her testimony with a simple declaration: “I’m here because Donald Trump raped me”.

She then went into vivid detail about the day she claims Mr Trump shoved her into a dressing room before launching an “extremely painful” assault.

Hours earlier, Mr Trump took to Truth Social to brand the trial a “witch hunt” while spewing victim-shaming assumptions about rape.

“Does anybody believe that I would take a then almost 60 year old woman that I didn’t know, from the front door of a very crowded department store, (with me being very well known, to put it mildly!), into a tiny dressing room, and …. her,” he wrote. “She didn’t scream? There are no witnesses? Nobody saw this? She never made a police complaint? If I was seen there with a woman-BIG PRESS. SCAM!”

His posts drew the ire of the judge, who implored Mr Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina to stop him from posting about the case.

Key Points

• Trump says E Jean Carroll rape case is a ‘scam’ because ‘she didn’t scream’

• ‘The force of hatred coming at me was staggering'

• 'Elle magazine would never have published this excerpt’

• ‘I thought he was evil'

• Carroll says she was strangled three times during marriage to John Johnson

Trump kept quiet on the Bud Light boycott. It turns out he owns Anheuser-Busch stock

11:00 , Andrew Feinberg

When conservative activists and Maga influencers called for a boycott of Bud Light beer over a sponsorship deal with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney, one notable GOP figure stayed silent on the matter: Former president Donald Trump.

The twice-impeached ex-president’s silence on the bubbling controversy stood out among GOP presidential contenders, many of whom spoke out against the maker of Bud Light, Anheuser-Busch InBev.

One possible Republican White House hopeful and Mr Trump’s highest-polling rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, said a boycott of the beverage was justified because the company’s decision to partner with Ms Mulvaney, a TikTok star who garnered an invitation to the White House last fall, was “rubbing our faces in it”.

“So, if you as a consumer are … ‘Like, yeah, they’re doing that, but I’m just going to keep drinking anyways.’ Well, then they’re going to keep doing it,” Mr DeSantis said, before extolling the power of the selective boycott. “So I think we have power as consumers to make our voice heard and not on every company because sometimes conservative consumers aren’t going to make a dent in some companies. This one is one,’” he said during an appearance on The Benny Show.

Read more:

Trump kept quiet on the Bud Light boycott. It turns out he owns Anheuser-Busch stock

Ivanka Trump splits from brothers by abandoning legal team in Trump Organization lawsuit fight

10:00 , John Bowden

Ivanka Trump is pursuing a new legal strategy in her defence against allegations levied against the Trump Organization and its executives – Donald Trump and members of his family – by New York’s attorney general.

The resort and hotel chain business stands accused in New York civil court of defrauding banks and other financial interests by falsely inflating and deflating the value of their assets in order to obtain loans, reap tax benefits, secure better insurance rates, and for a whole host of reasons that enriched the Trump Organization’s coffers.

The lawsuit comes as the company was found guilty in New York criminal court just last December of running a decade-long criminal tax fraud scheme.

On Friday, Forbes reports that Ms Trump replaced a pair of attorneys who represented the three elder Trump children, Donald Jr, Eric and Ivanka, with attorney Bennet Moskowitz of Troutman Pepper; Mr Moskowitz’s hiring also coincided with the departure of two other attorneys Ivanka Trump had retained separately from her brothers.

Read more:

Ivanka splits from brothers by abandoning legal team in Trump Organization lawsuit

‘I was ashamed. I thought it was my fault’

09:00 , Gustaf Kilander

When telling her friend, TV anchor Carol Martin, about the encounter with Mr Trump, Ms Carroll said she told her not to publically accuse Mr Trump.

“Keep it to yourself,” Ms Martin said at the time, according to Ms Carroll. “He has 200 lawyers. He’ll bury you.”

Ms Martin is expected to testify.

Ms Carroll was asked why she didn’t say anything at the time, she said, “I would never report something like this,” according to Law & Crime.

She said Roger Ailes, her boss at Fox News, who was later forced out after facing sexual harassment allegations, “would have fired me. He was a friend of Donald Trump”.

“I was ashamed. I thought it was my fault,” she added.

She said that women who have been sexually assaulted are seen as “soiled goods”.

“People say, ‘You’re so brave. You’re so brave,’” she said, but also added, “I don’t know”.

She said people question if women should have been smarter, should have called out, or shouldn’t have been flirtatious.

E Jean Carroll trial judge demands Trump stop posting on Truth Social

08:00 , Gustaf Kilander and Bevan Hurley

The judge in the civil rape trial between Donald Trump and E Jean Carroll has demanded that the former president stop posting on Truth Social after he broke his silence on the court proceedings in a furious rant.

The former president took to Truth Social on Wednesday morning ahead of the first day of testimony in the bombshell case pitting him against Ms Carroll, who accused Mr Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in the 1990s.

In a pair of posts, he branded the case a “witch hunt” as he made a misleading suggestion about key evidence in the case: the dress Ms Carroll was wearing on the day of the alleged rape.

“The E. Jean Carroll case, Ms. Bergdorf Goodman, is a made up SCAM,” Mr Trump wrote. “Her lawyer is a political operative, financed by a big political donor that they said didn’t exist, only to get caught lying about that.”

“Just look at her CNN interview before & after the commercial break - Like a different person. She said there was a dress, using the ol’ Monica Lewinsky ‘stuff’, then she didn’t want to produce it. The dress should be allowed to be part of the case. This is a fraudulent & false story--Witch Hunt!”

Read more:

E Jean Carroll trial judge demands Trump stop posting on Truth Social

‘I don’t put bad things in my diary’

07:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Mr Trump’s lawyer said during the opening arguments part of the proceedings that Ms Carroll didn’t write about the alleged rape in her diary.

“I’m very superstitious. I don’t put bad things in my diary,” she said when asked why, according to Law & Crime.

‘He raped you, E Jean. You should go to the police,’ friend told Carroll

06:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Ms Carroll said she “had so much adrenaline” as she tried to get away from Mr Trump.

“Do you know if he ejaculated?” she was asked.

“I don’t think so,” Ms Carroll replied, according to Law & Crime.

When asked how long the alleged assault lasted, she said, “very few minutes, very few. That’s another thing that surprised me”.

She said it had come as a surprise because of the quick change from the “joshing” tone Mr Trump has used earlier.

She said she told her friend Lisa Birnbach about the episode and that she may have thought it was funny.

Asked why she may have thought it was funny, she said, “I had not processed it. I had not processed what was going on”.

Asked if any of it is funny now, Ms Carroll said, “No, it was tragic”.

She said Ms Birnbach, who’s expected to testify, told her that “he raped you. He raped you, E Jean. You should go to the police.

“I said ‘No way’. She said, ‘I’ll go with you.’”

‘As I’m sitting here today, I still feel it'

05:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Ms Carroll was asked, “at any point during this encounter, do you recall saying no?”

“No,” she said softly, according to Law & Crime.

“I don’t recall saying it,” she added, but noted that she may have done so.

“I’m not a screamer,” when she was asked if he yelled.

“He pulled down my tights and his hand, his fingers went into my vagina, which was extremely painful,” she said, adding that he “curved” his fingers.

“As I’m sitting here today, I still feel it,” she added.

It was at that point that Mr Trump “inserted his penis,” Ms Carroll said.

E Jean Carroll recounts alleged Trump rape in horrifying detail: ‘I’m not a screamer. I’m a fighter’

04:00 , Ariana Baio

E Jean Carroll recounts alleged Trump rape in horrifying detail: ‘I’m not a screamer. I’m a fighter’

E Jean Carroll, the woman accusing Donald Trump of rape, took the stand in her civil trial against the former president where she recounted the horrific assault in detail.

Ms Carroll testified on Wednesday that she was with Mr Trump at the department store, Bergdorf Goodman’s in the mid-1990s when Mr Trump assaulted her in the dressing room.

The former Elle columnist said the former president asked her to try on an outfit in the dressing room.

“He shut the door and shoved me up against the wall,” Ms Carroll recounted. “I was confused. I laughed.”

She said she pushed Mr Trump back but he “thurst” her into the wall again.

Read more:

E Jean Carroll recounts alleged Trump rape in horrifying detail: ‘I’m a fighter’

Trump’s legal exposure appears ‘overwhelming,’ lawyer says

03:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Attorney Jamie White, who represented USA Gymnastics team members who were assaulted by ex-coach Larry Nasser, told The Independent that Mr Trump’s legal exposure appeared “overwhelming”.

The contemporaneous statements that Ms Carroll made to friends would likely be crucial to the jury believing her allegations, he said.

“Any time there is a ‘he said, she said,’ incident — especially in this case, we look for corroboration. So you can’t say she went back in time and bolstered her story,” he said.

Mr White, of White Law, added Mr Trump would likely have been trying to reach an 11th hour settlement to avoid the trial.

If Mr Trump does testify and make admissions of guilt, he could open himself up to a criminal liability as New York does not have a statute of limitations for first degree sexual assault, Mr White added.

“So if he gets up there and provides testimony and the DA decides he may have committed a criminal sexual act in the first degree, criminal charges could be brought.”

‘It was quite clear that I didn’t want anything else to happen'

03:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Ms Carroll agreed that she was flirting back with Mr Trump during the encounter.

When asked if it was escalating, she replied that “comedy was escalating,” according to Law & Crime.

She added that opening the door has “plagued” because she “walked into it”.

She said that Mr Trump “shoved” her against the wall and that she became very befuddled.

“I continued to laugh, because for a minute I thought maybe it was a mistake,” she said.

“He, he was very large,” she said. “He leaned down and pulled down my tights.”

“I was pushing him back. It was quite clear that I didn’t want anything else to happen,” she added.

Alleged encounter began as Carroll was leaving department store

02:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Ms Carroll said the encounter with Mr Trump started when she was leaving the department store and Mr Trump put his hand up and did what she said was the “universal” sign.

Mr Trump said he recognized her has the “advice lady” and she said “hey, you’re that real estate tycoon,” according to Law & Crime.

When she revealed her age at the time, 52, Mr Trump jokingly said: “You are so old”.

‘Donald Trump was being very light, very joshing and pleasant, and very funny'

02:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Ms Carroll said she joined Mr Trump in the department store to find a gift for a woman.

She said he picked up a see-through, grey, body suit.

“It looks like a swimsuit, but this was see-through,” she said, according to Law & Crime. “It used to be called teddies.”

“Go put this on,” Mr Trump said, with Ms Carroll calling it “jesting, joshing”.

“You put it on. It’s your color,” she told him.

“I started looking on it as a Saturday Night Live sketch,” she added. “Donald Trump was being very light, very joshing and pleasant, and very funny.”

Ms Carroll was asked, “just to be clear, was Trump dragging you into the dressing room?”

“No,” she said.

E Jean Carroll breaks down in witness box as she testifies about alleged rape at hands of Donald Trump

01:37 , Josh Marcus

Since 1996, when she alleges she was raped by Donald Trump, E Jean Carroll has been living a kind of dual existence, she said during harrowing testimony in a civil trial at the US Federal Courthouse in Manhattan on Wednesday.

There was the public persona; the successful writer, television host and Ask E Jean advice columnist who was always upbeat, optimistic and trying to help others.

“And then I have a private self, and that’s the one that can’t admit out loud that there has been any suffering,” she testified.

Ms Carroll described in graphic detail the alleged rape by the former president in a dressing room on the 6th floor of the luxury Manhattan department store Bergdorf Goodman.

Bevan Hurley has the details.

Writer tells court her ‘rape’ by Trump left her incapable of finding love

‘When do you believe Donald Trump assaulted you?'

01:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Ms Carroll admitted that she was unsure of the timing of the rape, leading to an objection Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina.

“When do you believe Donald Trump assaulted you?” counsel asked.

“Going by what I was wearing, tights but no coat, I’d say spring. Ms Birnbach has written a story about Mr Trump and Mar-a-Lago, a bombshell,” she said before Joe Tacopina objected, according to Inner City Press.

“Mr. Tacopina said I referred to 1995 or 1996,” Ms Carroll said.

“Just, how did the article help you remember?” counsel asked.

“Lisa Birnbach wrote it,” Ms Carroll said, adding that “she went down to Mar-a-Lago in February 1996. I believe she would not have gone down there if she’d known what [Trump] had done to me”.

Mr Tacopina objected again, but Judge Kaplan chose to let it proceed.

What exactly has Trump said about E Jean Carroll as her civil rape trial begins?

01:00 , John Bowden

Donald Trump’s lawyers entered court for yet another legal showdown in New York this week as the former president faces an accusation of rape from author E Jean Carroll.

It’s part of a long-brewing fight that has vexed the president for nearly a half decade, almost as long as the Stormy Daniels controversy which earlier this month resulted in Mr Trump being hit with 34 criminal counts by Manhattan prosecutors.

Ms Carroll alleges that the former president, then a business mogul known around New York, raped her in the fitting room of a department store in 1995 or 1996. According to news reports, she plans to corroborate her story with the testimony of individuals who will say that Ms Carroll told them shortly after the alleged attack, as well as testimony from other women who will reportedly testify about unwanted sexual advances from Mr Trump.

Read more:

What exactly has Trump said about E Jean Carroll as her civil rape trial begins?

Carroll says she thought Trump was a ‘sophisticated man who was entertaining to be around'

Thursday 27 April 2023 00:30 , Gustaf Kilander

After going through her early life, the counsel said, “let’s turn to the reason you’re here, what happened with Donald Trump. When did you meet him?”

Ms Carroll said it was in “1987, at SNL or ABC,” according to Inner City Press.

A photo was shown of “Donald Trump, Ivana, John Johnson, and me,” Ms Carroll said.

“The conversation was about 5 minutes. He was a raconteur,” she said.

She added that Mr Trump was a “man about town,” Adam Klasfeld of Law & Crime noted.

Ms Carroll thought he was a “sophisticated man who was entertaining to be around”.

She said she found him attractive because he “was very personable”.

Ousted Fox News chairman brought Carroll to network

Thursday 27 April 2023 00:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Counsel asked Ms Carroll about the TV show she hosted.

“It was the idea of Roger Ailes. We went on to create Fox News,” she said of the late Fox News chairman, who later had to leave the network following allegations of sexual harassment.

“He had his own show, Straight Forward, at 8 pm. He interviewed celebrities,” Ms Carroll noted, according to Inner City Press.

Later in her testimony, Ms Carroll recounted how she got remarried in the 1980s to “John Johnson of ABC, then CBS”.

They married in “1987 or 1988. Then for 3 years, ending in a divorce - but we continued to see each other”.

Beginning of Carroll testimony handle early private and professional life

Wednesday 26 April 2023 23:30 , Gustaf Kilander

The beginning of Ms Carroll’s testimony handled her early private and professional life.

“When did you graduate?” counsel asked, according to Inner City Press.

“1967, after I returned a library book,” she said.

“What did you want to do?” the lawyer added.

“Be a writer. First I worked for P&G,” Ms Carroll replied.

She said her marriage to Steve Byers ended “in 1980 or 1981 after a successful companionship and marriage”.

She moved from Montana “to Manhattan. I wrote for magazines: Esquire, Playboy, Rolling Stone, then Vanity Fair and New York and the Atlantic”.

She then moved on to Elle, which she wrote for until 2019.

“It was the thinking woman’s fashion magazine. I started Ask E. Jean,” she said.

‘I’m here because Donald Trump raped me'

Wednesday 26 April 2023 23:00 , Gustaf Kilander

E Jean Carroll took the stand on Wednesday, saying “I’m here because Donald Trump raped me”.

“When I wrote about it, he said it didn’t happen. He lied and shattered my reputation and I’m here to try and get my life back,” she added.

Carroll’s lawyer argues Trump posts violate court orders as judge presses Trump team on DNA

Wednesday 26 April 2023 22:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Donald Trump’s Truth Social posts on Wednesday morning quickly made it into the court proceedings.

“The E. Jean Carroll case, Ms. Bergdorf Goodman, is a made up SCAM,” the former president wrote on Wednesday. “Her lawyer is a political operative, financed by a big political donor that they said didn’t exist, only to get caught lying about that.”

“Just look at her CNN interview before & after the commercial break - Like a different person. She said there was a dress, using the ol’ Monica Lewinsky ‘stuff’, then she didn’t want to produce it,” he wrote. “The dress should be allowed to be part of the case. This is a fraudulent & false story--Witch Hunt!”

In a subsequent post, Mr Trump went on to claim that “they got caught lying! The Miss Bergdorf Goodman case is financed by a big political donor that they tried to hide”.

“Does anybody believe that I would take a then almost 60 year old woman that I didn’t know, from the front door of a very crowded department store, (with me being very well known, to put it mildly!), into a tiny dressing room, and …. her,” he wrote. “She didn’t scream? There are no witnesses? Nobody saw this? She never made a police complaint? If I was seen there with a woman-BIG PRESS. SCAM!”

According to Adam Klasfeld of Law & Crime, “Carroll’s lawyer argues Trump’s Truth Social posts violate two court orders, not to discuss the lawyers or the DNA issue”.

Judge Lewis Kaplan said that Mr Trump “for three years refused to give a DNA sample, and now he wants it in the case?”

The judge said the comments were “entirely inappropriate”.

Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina responded that he would “try to address that with my client” and that he would ask Mr Trump to “refrain from any further posts regarding this case”.

The judge responded, “Well, I hope you’re more successful,” and added that Mr Trump “may or may not be tampering with a new source of potential liability. And I think you know what I mean”.

Trump says E Jean Carroll rape case is a ‘scam’ because ‘she didn’t scream’

Wednesday 26 April 2023 22:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Donald Trump took to Truth Social to claim that the case being handled in the civil rape trial against him following legal action from former advice columnist E Jean Carroll is “a scam”.

“The E. Jean Carroll case, Ms. Bergdorf Goodman, is a made up SCAM,” the former president wrote on Wednesday. “Her lawyer is a political operative, financed by a big political donor that they said didn’t exist, only to get caught lying about that.”

“Just look at her CNN interview before & after the commercial break - Like a different person. She said there was a dress, using the ol’ Monica Lewinsky ‘stuff’, then she didn’t want to produce it,” he wrote. “The dress should be allowed to be part of the case. This is a fraudulent & false story--Witch Hunt!”

In a subsequent post, Mr Trump went on to claim that “they got caught lying! The Miss Bergdorf Goodman case is financed by a big political donor that they tried to hide”.

“Does anybody believe that I would take a then almost 60 year old woman that I didn’t know, from the front door of a very crowded department store, (with me being very well known, to put it mildly!), into a tiny dressing room, and …. her,” he wrote. “She didn’t scream? There are no witnesses? Nobody saw this? She never made a police complaint? If I was seen there with a woman-BIG PRESS. SCAM!”

Read more:

Trump breaks silence on E Jean Carroll trial: ‘She didn’t scream?’

‘The force of hatred coming at me was staggering'

Wednesday 26 April 2023 21:34 , Gustaf Kilander

Speaking about her reaction to Mr Trump saying that “she’s not my type,” Ms Carroll said Mr Trump had called her a liar and implied that she was “too ugly to attack, too ugly to rape”.

“I thought he’d say it was consensual,” she said, according to Law & Crime.

“I lost my reputation. Nobody looked at me the same. It was gone,” she said about Mr Trump’s statements about her.

“The force of hatred coming at me was staggering,” she said.

She started to cry as she said, “I’ve regretted this 100 times, but in the end, being able to get my day in court finally is everything to me. So I’m happy!”

'Elle magazine would never have published this excerpt’

Wednesday 26 April 2023 21:23 , Gustaf Kilander

Ms Carroll said on Wednesday that she received a $70,000 advance on her book in which she accused Mr Trump of rape.

She said the book has sold terribly.

In 2019, an excerpt of the book was published in New York magazine, not in Elle where she wrote her column.

“Elle magazine would never have published this excerpt,” she said, according to Law & Crime, adding that the magazine wouldn’t want to show their columnist in that light.

“It’s about this woman confessing that she was making a bad mistake” and suffering, she said.

‘Why are you smiling next to someone who’s dressed like Donald Trump?'

Wednesday 26 April 2023 21:08 , Gustaf Kilander

During his opening statement on Tuesday, Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina finished off by showing a photograph of Ms Caroll next to a man with a Trump mask on during her walking tour entitled the “most hideous men in New York”.

A “picture is worth 1000 words,” Mr Tacopina told the jury.

That same image was shown to Ms Carroll on the stand on Wednesday.

“Why are you smiling next to someone who’s dressed like Donald Trump?” her lawyer asked.

“It’s funny. He’s not Donald Trump,” she said.

Courtroom sketches shows Carroll testifying

Wednesday 26 April 2023 20:53 , Gustaf Kilander

‘I thought he was evil'

Wednesday 26 April 2023 20:43 , Gustaf Kilander

When she was asked if she thought Mr Trump would be a good president, she said, “I thought he was evil”.

“Why did you think he was evil?” her counsel asked Ms Carroll.

“Because he raped me,” she said.

She acknowledged that she’s a registered Democrat, according to Law & Crime.

“Are you bringing this lawsuit because of your political views?” her counsel asked.

“No,” she replied.

She said she voted for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden. She donated $1,000 to Mr Obama, but she added that she voted for the Republican once.

“What’s your opinion of Donald Trump today?” she was asked.

“He’s vile,” she said.

‘I’m not as smart as I think I am'

Wednesday 26 April 2023 20:24 , Gustaf Kilander

Speaking about Mr Trump’s programme The Apprentice, Ms Carroll admitted that she liked the show, saying that it was well-produced.

She also agreed that she kept going to the department store where the alleged rape took place – Bergdorf Goodman.

“Have you taken any of the advice that you’ve given readers?” she was asked.

“No,” she replied, adding “I’m not as smart as I think I am”.

Caroll speaks about intrusive thoughts and visions

Wednesday 26 April 2023 20:13 , Gustaf Kilander

Ms Carroll spoke about intrusive thoughts and visions during her testimony on Wednesday.

“I thought for a minute I was going to die, that I couldn’t breathe,” she said, according to Law & Crime.

She added that an image of her attacker would appear in her mind when cooking and that she would feel his fingers “jammed up” in her.

She was then shown parts of her book outlining her strength. She said that was written by her Ask E Jean persona.

“That’s the invincible woman, not the private one,” she said, adding that she’s close to “incapable” of revealing her weaknesses.

Carroll says she was strangled three times during marriage to John Johnson

Wednesday 26 April 2023 19:57 , Gustaf Kilander

Ms Carroll said that her marriage to John Johnson was “very tempestuous”.

“The flip side of it was we argued. We fought. We were dog and cat,” she said, according to Law & Crime.

“He strangled me three times,” she added.

The 79-year-old said she was once sexually abused by a camp counsellor.

“Under the table, he would run his hands” on her when the others attending the camp were present.

When asked, she said she’s a “happy person” but noted that it might sound strange in comparison to what she has said on the stand.

Court order reveals judge’s dedication to keeping jury anonymous

Wednesday 26 April 2023 19:32 , Gustaf Kilander

VOICES: Don’t listen to Donald Trump. Many rape victims ‘don’t scream’ – and most never report their assaults

Wednesday 26 April 2023 19:30 , Clémence Michallon

Am I at all surprised that Donald Trump has appalling views on rape? No. I did not expect that the man who gave us the phrase “grab them by the p***y” to have a comprehensive, well-informed, empathetic understanding of those matters. So, I can’t say I fell off my chair in shock when the former president, in responding to the rape claims he is currently facing in court, managed to spread multiple harmful myths about sexual assault in four short sentences.

To recap: Trump is currently a defendant in a civil lawsuit filed by the writer E Jean Carroll, who alleges that Trump raped her in 1996, in the fitting room of a department store in Manhattan. Trump has denied those claims.

Carroll filed the lawsuit, for defamation and battery, last year under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which enables survivors of sexual assault who were over 18 when the abuse occurred to sue their abusers, regardless of when the abuse happened. (That case is separate from another defamation lawsuit Carroll filed against Trump in 2019, in which she alleged Trump defamed her in statements he made denying her claims.)

Read more:

Don’t listen to Trump. Many rape victims ‘don’t scream’ – and most never file reports

Carroll says she hasn’t been in romantic relationship since assault

Wednesday 26 April 2023 19:30 , Gustaf Kilander

As Ms Carroll’s testimony resumed on Wednesday, she said she hasn’t been in a romantic relationship since she was allegedly raped by Mr Trump in the mid-1990s.

When asked why, she said, “The short answer is, because Donald Trump raped me.”

She noted she got into trouble with Mr Trump after she flirted with him.

“It’s impossible for me to even look at [a man] and smile,” she said, according to Law & Crime.

When asked if she has ever had sex since the assault, she said she hasn’t.

Her voice cracked when speaking about her “private self”.

“That’s the one that can’t admit out loud that there’s been any suffering,” she said.

About her public persona, she said, “That’s my front. I’m invincible. I solve other people’s problems.”

Trump kept quiet on the Bud Light boycott. It turns out he owns Anheuser-Busch stock

Wednesday 26 April 2023 19:00 , Andrew Feinberg

When conservative activists and Maga influencers called for a boycott of Bud Light beer over a sponsorship deal with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney, one notable GOP figure stayed silent on the matter: Former president Donald Trump.

The twice-impeached ex-president’s silence on the bubbling controversy stood out among GOP presidential contenders, many of whom spoke out against the maker of Bud Light, Anheuser-Busch InBev.

One possible Republican White House hopeful and Mr Trump’s highest-polling rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, said a boycott of the beverage was justified because the company’s decision to partner with Ms Mulvaney, a TikTok star who garnered an invitation to the White House last fall, was “rubbing our faces in it”.

“So, if you as a consumer are … ‘Like, yeah, they’re doing that, but I’m just going to keep drinking anyways.’ Well, then they’re going to keep doing it,” Mr DeSantis said, before extolling the power of the selective boycott. “So I think we have power as consumers to make our voice heard and not on every company because sometimes conservative consumers aren’t going to make a dent in some companies. This one is one,’” he said during an appearance on The Benny Show.

Read more:

Trump kept quiet on the Bud Light boycott. It turns out he owns Anheuser-Busch stock

Ivanka Trump splits from brothers by abandoning legal team in Trump Organization lawsuit fight

Wednesday 26 April 2023 18:30 , John Bowden

Ivanka Trump is pursuing a new legal strategy in her defence against allegations levied against the Trump Organization and its executives – Donald Trump and members of his family – by New York’s attorney general.

The resort and hotel chain business stands accused in New York civil court of defrauding banks and other financial interests by falsely inflating and deflating the value of their assets in order to obtain loans, reap tax benefits, secure better insurance rates, and for a whole host of reasons that enriched the Trump Organization’s coffers.

The lawsuit comes as the company was found guilty in New York criminal court just last December of running a decade-long criminal tax fraud scheme.

On Friday, Forbes reports that Ms Trump replaced a pair of attorneys who represented the three elder Trump children, Donald Jr, Eric and Ivanka, with attorney Bennet Moskowitz of Troutman Pepper; Mr Moskowitz’s hiring also coincided with the departure of two other attorneys Ivanka Trump had retained separately from her brothers.

Read more:

Ivanka splits from brothers by abandoning legal team in Trump Organization lawsuit

‘I was ashamed. I thought it was my fault’

Wednesday 26 April 2023 18:08 , Gustaf Kilander

When telling her friend, TV anchor Carol Martin, about the encounter with Mr Trump, Ms Carroll said she told her not to publically accuse Mr Trump.

“Keep it to yourself,” Ms Martin said at the time, according to Ms Carroll. “He has 200 lawyers. He’ll bury you.”

Ms Martin is expected to testify.

Ms Carroll was asked why she didn’t say anything at the time, she said, “I would never report something like this,” according to Law & Crime.

She said Roger Ailes, her boss at Fox News, who was later forced out after facing sexual harassment allegations, “would have fired me. He was a friend of Donald Trump”.

“I was ashamed. I thought it was my fault,” she added.

She said that women who have been sexually assaulted are seen as “soiled goods”.

“People say, ‘You’re so brave. You’re so brave,’” she said, but also added, “I don’t know”.

She said people question if women should have been smarter, should have called out, or shouldn’t have been flirtatious.

E Jean Carroll trial judge demands Trump stop posting on Truth Social

Wednesday 26 April 2023 18:00 , Gustaf Kilander and Bevan Hurley

The judge in the civil rape trial between Donald Trump and E Jean Carroll has demanded that the former president stop posting on Truth Social after he broke his silence on the court proceedings in a furious rant.

The former president took to Truth Social on Wednesday morning ahead of the first day of testimony in the bombshell case pitting him against Ms Carroll, who accused Mr Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in the 1990s.

In a pair of posts, he branded the case a “witch hunt” as he made a misleading suggestion about key evidence in the case: the dress Ms Carroll was wearing on the day of the alleged rape.

“The E. Jean Carroll case, Ms. Bergdorf Goodman, is a made up SCAM,” Mr Trump wrote. “Her lawyer is a political operative, financed by a big political donor that they said didn’t exist, only to get caught lying about that.”

“Just look at her CNN interview before & after the commercial break - Like a different person. She said there was a dress, using the ol’ Monica Lewinsky ‘stuff’, then she didn’t want to produce it. The dress should be allowed to be part of the case. This is a fraudulent & false story--Witch Hunt!”

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E Jean Carroll trial judge demands Trump stop posting on Truth Social

‘I don’t put bad things in my diary’

Wednesday 26 April 2023 17:52 , Gustaf Kilander

Mr Trump’s lawyer said during the opening arguments part of the proceedings that Ms Carroll didn’t write about the alleged rape in her diary.

“I’m very superstitious. I don’t put bad things in my diary,” she said when asked why, according to Law & Crime.

‘He raped you, E Jean. You should go to the police,’ friend told Carroll

Wednesday 26 April 2023 17:45 , Gustaf Kilander

Ms Carroll said she “had so much adrenaline” as she tried to get away from Mr Trump.

“Do you know if he ejaculated?” she was asked.

“I don’t think so,” Ms Carroll replied, according to Law & Crime.

When asked how long the alleged assault lasted, she said, “very few minutes, very few. That’s another thing that surprised me”.

She said it had come as a surprise because of the quick change from the “joshing” tone Mr Trump has used earlier.

She said she told her friend Lisa Birnbach about the episode and that she may have thought it was funny.

Asked why she may have thought it was funny, she said, “I had not processed it. I had not processed what was going on”.

Asked if any of it is funny now, Ms Carroll said, “No, it was tragic”.

She said Ms Birnbach, who’s expected to testify, told her that “he raped you. He raped you, E Jean. You should go to the police.

“I said ‘No way’. She said, ‘I’ll go with you.’”

‘As I’m sitting here today, I still feel it'

Wednesday 26 April 2023 17:37 , Gustaf Kilander

Ms Carroll was asked, “at any point during this encounter, do you recall saying no?”

“No,” she said softly, according to Law & Crime.

“I don’t recall saying it,” she added, but noted that she may have done so.

“I’m not a screamer,” when she was asked if he yelled.

“He pulled down my tights and his hand, his fingers went into my vagina, which was extremely painful,” she said, adding that he “curved” his fingers.

“As I’m sitting here today, I still feel it,” she added.

It was at that point that Mr Trump “inserted his penis,” Ms Carroll said.

E Jean Carroll recounts alleged Trump rape in horrifying detail: ‘I’m not a screamer. I’m a fighter’

Wednesday 26 April 2023 17:31 , Ariana Baio

E Jean Carroll, the woman accusing Donald Trump of rape, took the stand in her civil trial against the former president where she recounted the horrific assault in detail.

Ms Carroll testified on Wednesday that she was with Mr Trump at the department store, Bergdorf Goodman’s in the mid-1990s when Mr Trump assaulted her in the dressing room.

The former Elle columnist said the former president asked her to try on an outfit in the dressing room.

“He shut the door and shoved me up against the wall,” Ms Carroll recounted. “I was confused. I laughed.”

She said she pushed Mr Trump back but he “thurst” her into the wall again.

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E Jean Carroll recounts alleged Trump rape in horrifying detail: ‘I’m a fighter’

Trump’s legal exposure appears ‘overwhelming,’ lawyer says

Wednesday 26 April 2023 17:30 , Bevan Hurley

Attorney Jamie White, who represented USA Gymnastics team members who were assaulted by ex-coach Larry Nasser, told The Independent that Mr Trump’s legal exposure appeared “overwhelming”.

The contemporaneous statements that Ms Carroll made to friends would likely be crucial to the jury believing her allegations, he said.

“Any time there is a ‘he said, she said,’ incident — especially in this case, we look for corroboration. So you can’t say she went back in time and bolstered her story,” he said.

Mr White, of White Law, added Mr Trump would likely have been trying to reach an 11th hour settlement to avoid the trial.

If Mr Trump does testify and make admissions of guilt, he could open himself up to a criminal liability as New York does not have a statute of limitations for first degree sexual assault, Mr White added.

“So if he gets up there and provides testimony and the DA decides he may have committed a criminal sexual act in the first degree, criminal charges could be brought.”

‘It was quite clear that I didn’t want anything else to happen'

Wednesday 26 April 2023 17:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Ms Carroll agreed that she was flirting back with Mr Trump during the encounter.

When asked if it was escalating, she replied that “comedy was escalating,” according to Law & Crime.

She added that opening the door has “plagued” because she “walked into it”.

She said that Mr Trump “shoved” her against the wall and that she became very befuddled.

“I continued to laugh, because for a minute I thought maybe it was a mistake,” she said.

“He, he was very large,” she said. “He leaned down and pulled down my tights.”

“I was pushing him back. It was quite clear that I didn’t want anything else to happen,” she added.

‘Donald Trump was being very light, very joshing and pleasant, and very funny'

Wednesday 26 April 2023 17:26 , Gustaf Kilander

Ms Carroll said she joined Mr Trump in the department store to find a gift for a woman.

She said he picked up a see-through, grey, body suit.

“It looks like a swimsuit, but this was see-through,” she said, according to Law & Crime. “It used to be called teddies.”

“Go put this on,” Mr Trump said, with Ms Carroll calling it “jesting, joshing”.

“You put it on. It’s your color,” she told him.

“I started looking on it as a Saturday Night Live sketch,” she added. “Donald Trump was being very light, very joshing and pleasant, and very funny.”

Ms Carroll was asked, “just to be clear, was Trump dragging you into the dressing room?”

“No,” she said.

Alleged encounter began as Carroll was leaving department store

Wednesday 26 April 2023 17:21 , Gustaf Kilander

Ms Carroll said the encounter with Mr Trump started when she was leaving the department store and Mr Trump put his hand up and did what she said was the “universal” sign.

Mr Trump said he recognized her has the “advice lady” and she said “hey, you’re that real estate tycoon,” according to Law & Crime.

When she revealed her age at the time, 52, Mr Trump jokingly said “you are so old”.