The writer suing Donald Trump for allegedly raping her nearly 30 years ago told jurors at a civil trial today that the former US president sexually assaulted her and defamed her by lying about it.
"I'm here because Donald Trump raped me, and when I wrote about it, he lied and said it didn't happen," E Jean Carroll said in federal court in Manhattan.
"He lied and shattered my reputation, and I'm here to try and get my life back."
Ms Carroll, 79, a former Elle magazine advice columnist, is seeking unspecified damages from Mr Trump, 76, who leads the Republican field in the 2024 presidential campaign.
Her lawsuit concerns an alleged encounter in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in late 1995 or early 1996, where she says Mr Trump raped her until she was able to flee.
Ms Carroll says Mr Trump defamed her by calling her rape claim a hoax, lie, and "complete con job" on his Truth Social media platform, and said he had not known her, she was not his "type," and she made up the claim to sell her memoir.
She is also suing under New York's Adult Survivors Act, which lets adults sue their alleged abusers long after statutes of limitations have run out.
Mr Trump is not attending and not required to attend the trial, which began yesterday and is expected to last one to two weeks.
But he expressed his views about it again on Truth Social today, calling Ms Carroll's lawyer a "political operative" and the rape claim "a made-up SCAM," adding:
"This is a fraudulent & false story - Witch Hunt!"
US District Judge Lewis Kaplan warned that Mr Trump could face more legal problems if he kept discussing the case.
Ms Carroll testified that she had met Mr Trump years before the alleged rape, finding him "very personable" and a "man about town."
At Bergdorf, Ms Carroll recalled that she was leaving the store when Mr Trump recognised her and held up his hand. She stopped.
"He said, 'Hey, you are that advice lady,'" Ms Carroll recalled.
"I said, 'Hey, you are that real estate tycoon.'"
Ms Carroll said she and Mr Trump engaged in banter, describing his tone as "joshing," as Mr Trump sought to buy lingerie for another woman.
She said Mr Trump asked her to try on a piece of lingerie, prompting her to joke that he should try it on.
Ms Carroll said Mr Trump then ushered her to an open dressing room, shut the door, shoved her against a wall, and pulled down her tights.
She choked up and fought back tears as she described pushing him back. After giving detail of the moments after, she added; "As I'm sitting here today I can still feel it."
Asked by her lawyer if she told Mr Trump "no," Ms Carroll said: "I don't recall saying it. I may have said it."
Ms Carroll said she blamed herself at the time, and feared she would lose her job and Mr Trump would retaliate if she reported him.
She also said the damage was long-lasting.
"It left me unable to ever have a romantic life again," she added.
Ms Carroll denied Mr Trump's repeated suggestions that she sued because she disliked his politics.
"I'm not settling a political score at all," Ms Carroll said.
"I'm settling a personal score because he called he a liar repeatedly, and it really has decimated my reputation.
"I'm a journalist," she added. "The one thing I have to have is the trust of the readers."
Lawyers for Mr Trump are expected to question Ms Carroll, including over her inability to remember when the encounter took place.
Outside interference
Mr Trump posted his latest comments on Truth Social about an hour before today's testimony began.
He questioned how anyone could believe he - "being very well known, to put it mildly!" - could have raped Ms Carroll.
"She didn't scream?" Mr Trump wrote. "There are no witnesses? Nobody saw this?"
The posts led Judge Kaplan to tell Mr Trump's legal team, outside the jury's presence, that Mr Trump appeared to be "endeavoring, certainly, to speak to his 'public'" and to the jury about matters that have "no business being spoken about."
Judge Kaplan added that Mr Trump could be "tampering with a new source of liability" if he continued.
Mr Trump's lawyer, Joe Tacopina, said he would tell Mr Trump to stop.
But concern about social media influencing the trial resurfaced after Mr Trump's son Eric tweeted this afternoon about Reid Hoffman, the billionaire LinkedIn co-founder and prominent Democratic donor helping fund Ms Carroll's case.
Eric Trump said Mr Hoffman's involvement was "an embarrassment to our country, should be illegal and tells you everything you need to know about the case."
Judge Kaplan told Mr Tacopina that such comments needed to stop.
"There are some relevant US statutes here, and somebody on your side ought to be thinking about them," Judge Kaplan said.
The judge also said Donald Trump's lawyers cannot mention Mr Hoffman at the trial, calling it "unfairly prejudicial."
