NEW YORK — A Manhattan jury is slated to start deliberating E. Jean Carroll’s civil rape and defamation case against Donald Trump this week — more than five years after she accused him of a violent sexual assault in a Midtown dressing room.
The six men and three women who will determine whether Trump raped Carroll inside Bergdorf Goodman in the mid-1990s and defamed her when she came forward decades later have much to consider when they get to the jury room.
They heard a detailed account accusing Trump of brutally assaulting women in random attacks over 26 years and denigrating their looks and sanity when they came forward.
Carroll’s team presented 11 witnesses over two weeks and played footage of a riled-up Trump disparaging his accusers at campaign rallies, bragging about sexual assault on a hot mic in the “Access Hollywood” tape, and defending his notorious comments in previously-unseen deposition testimony.
Carroll spent almost three days on the stand, where she emotionally described Trump leading her to an unoccupied floor of the department store, pinning her against a wall, and molesting her with his hand before raping her.
The former president, who forcefully contests Carroll’s allegations, saying she isn’t his “type,” was seen confusing her for his ex-wife Marla Maples in a photo of them together presented at trial.
Natasha Stoynoff and Jessica Leeds accused Trump of assaulting them in accounts mirroring details of the encounter Carroll alleges.
Stoynoff said Trump led her to an empty room at Mar-a-Lago in December 2005 and forcibly kissed her when she was profiling his and a heavily pregnant Melania’s one-year wedding anniversary for People magazine.
Leeds said Trump assaulted her on a flight in 1979 in first class. She said it felt like he had “40 zillion hands” as he grabbed her breasts and put his hand up her skirt.
Carroll’s friends, Lisa Birnbach and Carol Martin, corroborated that she confided in them in the assault’s aftermath. Birbach affirmed that she told Carroll to report it, while Martin said she believed Carroll should stay silent..
Jurors heard from an expert in trauma, Leslie Lebowitz, who said Carroll’s symptoms resulting from the alleged attack were so severe that it demolished her self-esteem and ability to be intimate.
Lebowitz said that Carroll didn’t scream or call the police — details Trump’s lawyer tried to nail her on — was typical of many victims of sexual assault. She said the fact Carroll wasn’t certain it happened in 1996 was also a classic result of trauma.
Robert Salerno, a longtime VP at Bergdorf, testified about seeing Trump in the women’s section at the store a block from his namesake tower on Fifth Ave. A former employee, Cheryl Beall, supported details in Carroll’s account, testifying that the lingerie department had little foot traffic and was frequently unstaffed.
The former editor-in-chief of Elle, Roberta Myers, shed light on what Carroll was famous for before she became known as the president’s rape accuser and lost her job. She described Carroll as “a real truth teller, a journalist, who gave trusted advice on dating and living in the city,” and said readers adored her.
An expert in reputation harm, Ashley Humphrees, did the math on how much Trump accusing Carroll of a “hoax” cost her. If Carroll wins, Trump could owe $2.7 million in damages.
His lawyers focused their defense on alleging Carroll and her friends concocted a scheme to destroy him politically and sell a book. Joe Tacopina subjected Carroll to an aggressive cross-examination and dissected her friends’ texts and emails when they reacted with grief to his election as president.
Trump didn’t present a defense case. He put himself and a psychiatrist on his list of witnesses but informed the court this week that neither could make it.
