A lawyer for former United States President Donald Trump has called a rape and defamation case brought by the writer E Jean Carroll an affront to the justice system.
During closing arguments in a civil trial in Manhattan federal court on Monday, lawyer Joseph Tacopina urged jurors to set aside any opinions they might have about Trump and reject what he called Carroll’s effort to “profit” from a false story.
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“What E Jean Carroll has done here is an affront to justice. She has abused this system by bringing a false claim for — amongst other things — money, status, political reasons,” Tacopina said.
Trump has accused Carroll of making up the story to drive sales of her 2019 memoir, in which she made her claims public.
Carroll, 79, filed her lawsuit last year against Trump, 76, claiming he raped her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in 1995 or 1996, and then defamed her by denying it happened. The former Elle magazine advice columnist is seeking unspecified monetary damages.
Her defamation claim concerns an October 2022 post on Trump’s Truth Social platform in which he called her allegations a “complete con job” and “a Hoax and a lie”.
Earlier on Monday, Carroll’s lawyer...
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