Donald Trump’s lawyer said Monday that accuser E. Jean Carroll’s rape allegations are a “work of fiction” — and claimed she wants jurors in their civil trial to hate the former president so much, they “ignore fact.”
Trump attorney Joe Tacopina made the statements during closing remarks in the Manhattan federal trial over Carroll’s lawsuit accusing the 45th president of attacking her in a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room, most likely in 1996.
“The whole story is clearly an unbelievable work of fiction,” Tacopina said of Carroll’s claims, calling them “an affront to justice.”
Tacopina said Carroll’s team wants jurors “to hate” Trump, 76, “enough to ignore facts.”
The fact that Carroll, 79, did not report the alleged attack to the police after it happened, and that she couldn’t nail down the exact date, month or year she was assaulted are all indications that it is a bogus claim, Tacopina argued.
“They don’t want to narrow down the time frame because they don’t want Donald Trump to present an alibi witness,” Tacopina told the jury of Carroll’s attorneys.
He also brought up a “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” episode from before Carroll went public in 2019 that had a similar plot line as her rape allegations — calling it “one of the biggest problems” Carroll’s side has “that cannot be ignored.”
Carroll was previously asked about the 2012 episode in question and testified that she was “aware” of it but had not seen it.
Her lawyer Roberta Kaplan argued earlier Monday that...
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