Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Fresno Suspect Caught After Jumping Out of Second-Floor Window, 2 Others Arrested

20 hours ago

Tesla Has Applied to Arizona for Robotaxi Service Certification, State Transport Department Says

20 hours ago

Evacuations Ongoing as San Luis Obispo’s Madre Fire Scorches Tens of Thousands of Acres

21 hours ago

US Senate to Vote on Trump Aid, Broadcasting Cuts as Deadline Looms

21 hours ago

US Health Department Widens Immigrant Benefit Restrictions

21 hours ago

Fresno Police Arrest Suspect in Stabbing That Left Man Critically Injured

22 hours ago

Madera County Authorities Seek Next of Kin for North Fork Man

22 hours ago

Froot Loops Maker WK Kellogg Agrees to $3.1 Billion Deal From Italy’s Ferrero

23 hours ago

China Signals Willingness to Sell Fighter Jets as Iran Eyes J-10 Aircraft

23 hours ago

Tulare County Man Arrested in Ivanhoe Shooting, Second Suspect Still at Large

23 hours ago
Trump Rejects Last Chance to Testify at Trial Over Rape Allegation
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 2 years ago on
May 8, 2023

Share

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Former President Donald Trump rejected his last chance Sunday to testify at a civil trial where a longtime advice columnist has accused him of raping her in a luxury department store dressing room in 1996.

Trump, a Republican candidate for president in 2024, was given until 5 p.m. Sunday by U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan to file a request to testify. Nothing was filed.

It was not a surprise. Trump has not shown up once during the two-week Manhattan trial where writer E. Jean Carroll testified for several days, repeating claims she first made publicly in a 2019 memoir. She is seeking compensatory and punitive damages totaling millions of dollars.

The jury has also watched lengthy excerpts from an October videotaped deposition in which Trump vehemently denied raping Carroll or ever really knowing her.

Without Trump’s testimony, lawyers were scheduled to make closing arguments Monday, with deliberations likely to begin on Tuesday.

After plaintiffs rested their case Thursday, Trump attorney Joe Tacopina immediately rested the defense case as well without calling any witnesses. He did not request additional time for Trump to decide to testify. Tacopina declined in an email to comment after the deadline passed Sunday.

On Thursday, Kaplan had given Trump extra time to change his mind and request to testify, though the judge did not promise he would grant such a request to reopen the defense case so Trump could take the stand.

At the time, Kaplan noted that he’d heard about news reports Thursday in which Trump told reporters while visiting his golf course in Doonbeg, Ireland, that he would “probably attend” the trial. Trump also criticized Kaplan, a Bill Clinton appointee, as an “extremely hostile” and “rough judge” who “doesn’t like me very much.”

On the witness stand, Carroll, 79, testified that Trump, 76, raped her in spring 1996 after they met at the entrance of the midtown Manhattan department store Bergdorf Goodman.

She said the encounter began as a fun and flirtatious outing as Trump coaxed her into helping him shop for a gift for another woman. She said they ended up in the store’s desolate lingerie section, where they teased each other to try on a see-through bodysuit.

Trump Calls Accuser ‘Nut Job’

As Carroll recalled it, laughter accompanied them into a dressing room where Trump became violent, slamming her up against a wall, pulling aside her tights and raping her before she kneed him and fled the store.

In his deposition, Trump said Carroll made it up. He called it “a false, disgusting lie” delivered by a “nut job” who was trying to stoke sales of her book.

He also repeated comments he made in statements that she was not his “type.”

“She’s not my type and that’s 100% true,” he said.

And he repeated his claims in a 2005 “Access Hollywood” video in which he bragged that men who are celebrities can grab women by the genitals without asking.

“Historically that’s true with stars,” he said.

Carroll sued Trump in November, minutes after New York state enacted a law allowing adult sexual assault victims to sue others even if the attacks occurred decades earlier.

Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, wrote a letter to the judge Sunday to complain that Trump still has not removed April 26 posts on his social media network in which he called Carroll’s allegations “a made up SCAM.” And she noted that he repeated disparaging remarks about the trial three days ago in Ireland.

After the April 26 postings on Truth Social, Judge Kaplan, who is not related to Carroll’s lawyer, said Trump’s comments were “highly inappropriate” and expressed concern that Trump was trying to communicate to the jury “about stuff that has no business being spoken about.”

The Associated Press typically does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Carroll has done.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Bitcoin’s New Record Lifts Industry Stocks Ahead of ‘Crypto Week’ in Washington

DON'T MISS

White House Reviews Mass Federal Layoff Plans, Aims for Swift Action

DON'T MISS

Clovis Man Killed in Fresno County Crash After Running Stop Sign

DON'T MISS

Immigration Raids on California Cannabis Nurseries Spark Protests

DON'T MISS

US Tariff Rate May Be More Than 20% After Latest Round, Global Business Group Says

DON'T MISS

The White House Aide Driving Trump’s Aggressive Immigration Agenda

DON'T MISS

Some of Iran’s Enriched Uranium Survived Attacks, Israeli Official Says

DON'T MISS

Mahmoud Khalil Seeks $20 Million From Trump Administration Over Immigration Arrest

DON'T MISS

Madera County Authorities Seek Public’s Help Finding Next of Kin for Man Who Died in Hospital

DON'T MISS

Six Secret Service Agents Punished Over Trump Assassination Attempt

UP NEXT

White House Reviews Mass Federal Layoff Plans, Aims for Swift Action

UP NEXT

Clovis Man Killed in Fresno County Crash After Running Stop Sign

UP NEXT

Immigration Raids on California Cannabis Nurseries Spark Protests

UP NEXT

US Tariff Rate May Be More Than 20% After Latest Round, Global Business Group Says

UP NEXT

The White House Aide Driving Trump’s Aggressive Immigration Agenda

UP NEXT

Some of Iran’s Enriched Uranium Survived Attacks, Israeli Official Says

UP NEXT

Mahmoud Khalil Seeks $20 Million From Trump Administration Over Immigration Arrest

UP NEXT

Madera County Authorities Seek Public’s Help Finding Next of Kin for Man Who Died in Hospital

UP NEXT

Six Secret Service Agents Punished Over Trump Assassination Attempt

UP NEXT

Fresno Teens Arrested in Violent Assaults That Injured Two Men, Including Elderly Victim

Immigration Raids on California Cannabis Nurseries Spark Protests

22 minutes ago

US Tariff Rate May Be More Than 20% After Latest Round, Global Business Group Says

25 minutes ago

The White House Aide Driving Trump’s Aggressive Immigration Agenda

29 minutes ago

Some of Iran’s Enriched Uranium Survived Attacks, Israeli Official Says

16 hours ago

Mahmoud Khalil Seeks $20 Million From Trump Administration Over Immigration Arrest

16 hours ago

Madera County Authorities Seek Public’s Help Finding Next of Kin for Man Who Died in Hospital

16 hours ago

Six Secret Service Agents Punished Over Trump Assassination Attempt

17 hours ago

Fresno Teens Arrested in Violent Assaults That Injured Two Men, Including Elderly Victim

17 hours ago

Wonderful Co. Has a New Face Promoting Pistachios: MVP Josh Allen

18 hours ago

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Francisco Salvador Zuniga

18 hours ago

Bitcoin’s New Record Lifts Industry Stocks Ahead of ‘Crypto Week’ in Washington

U.S.-listed crypto stocks jumped on Friday as bitcoin surged to a record high in the run-up to a landmark week that could cement policy wins...

6 minutes ago

Representations of cryptocurrency Bitcoin are seen in this illustration taken November 25, 2024. (Reuters File)
6 minutes ago

Bitcoin’s New Record Lifts Industry Stocks Ahead of ‘Crypto Week’ in Washington

A view of the White House in Washington, U.S., July 20, 2024. REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt/File Photo
9 minutes ago

White House Reviews Mass Federal Layoff Plans, Aims for Swift Action

fresno
15 minutes ago

Clovis Man Killed in Fresno County Crash After Running Stop Sign

U.S. federal agents block a road leading to an agricultural facility where U.S. federal agents and immigration officers conducted an operation, in Camarillo, California, U.S., July 10, 2025. (Reuters/Daniel Cole)
22 minutes ago

Immigration Raids on California Cannabis Nurseries Spark Protests

A 3D-printed miniature model depicting U.S. President Donald Trump, U.S. flag and word "Tariffs" in this illustration taken, April 17, 2025. (Reuters File)
25 minutes ago

US Tariff Rate May Be More Than 20% After Latest Round, Global Business Group Says

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 30, 2025. (Reuters File)
29 minutes ago

The White House Aide Driving Trump’s Aggressive Immigration Agenda

16 hours ago

Some of Iran’s Enriched Uranium Survived Attacks, Israeli Official Says

Mahmoud Khalil speaks in an interview with Reuters in New York City, U.S., July 2, 2025. (Reuters File)
16 hours ago

Mahmoud Khalil Seeks $20 Million From Trump Administration Over Immigration Arrest

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend