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Donald Trump, a former US president, missed a Sunday deadline to seek the court to appear and will not testify at a civil trial to refute writer E. Jean Carroll’s allegations that he sexually assaulted her in the 1990s and later defamed her.
Trump’s lawyer Joseph Tacopina informed the judge on Thursday that Trump had declined to testify during the trial in Manhattan federal court and had chosen not to offer a defence, betting that the jury would find Carroll’s argument to be unpersuasive.
A request for response from Tacopina was not immediately complied with.
Trump has until Sunday at 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) to notify the court that he intended to testify, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan instructed Tacopina to tell Trump after the jury had left for the day on Thursday.
Kaplan has set the two sides’ closing arguments on Monday. Carroll, 79, sued Trump, 76, last year, alleging that he sexually assaulted her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in 1995 or 1996 before denying it ever happened. The former advice writer for Elle magazine is suing for an undetermined amount of money damages.
Carroll allegedly made up the claim to boost sales of her 2019 biography, according to Trump, who was president from 2017 to 2021 and is currently the front-runner for the Republican nod for the US presidency in 2024.
On Wednesday, the jury watched a video deposition in which Trump denied raping Carroll.
In the footage, Trump can be seen leaning over a conference table as Carroll’s attorneys show him paperwork. “It’s the most ridiculous, disgusting story,” he says. It’s fabricated, she said.
