Trump used ‘biggest microphone on the planet’ to tear E Jean Carroll’s name to shreds, court hears

Donald Trump used his platform while he was US president to try to wreck E Jean Carroll’s name after she accused him of rape, her lawyer has argued in a New York court, adding that Mr Trump had also emboldened hardline followers to hurl smears and threats at her.

“He had the biggest microphone on the planet … He used it to tear her reputation to shreds – to defame her,” Shawn Crowley, one of Ms Carroll’s attorneys, said during opening statements in the former Elle columnist’s second defamation trial against Mr Trump, which opened in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday.

“Is it any wonder that when Donald Trump spoke from the White House, people all across the country listened and many, many believed what he said? Of course not,” Mr Crowley said. “When Donald Trump called Ms Carroll a liar and a fraud, they listened and they believed and they decided to go after her.”

Mr Trump was in court for jury selection, just hours after a landslide victory in the Republican Iowa caucuses as he runs for re-election, despite numerous civil and criminal court cases against him. Before selection started, Mr Trump’s lead lawyer on this case, Alina Habba, told the judge that his team intended to call him as a witness.

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A previous trial jury in another, related lawsuit by the New York writer determined that the former US president sexually abused her.

Ms Carroll said that Mr Trump raped her in a dressing room of the upscale Manhattan department store Bergdorf Goodman nearly 30 years ago. She first publicly came forward five years ago with an excerpt from her then forthcoming book, What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal, in New York magazine.

Mr Trump, at the time of the allegation still president, immediately went on the attack, claiming: “I’ve never met this person in my life. She is trying to sell a new book – that should indicate her motivation. It should be sold in the fiction section.”

Ms Carroll filed a suit against him in 2019, saying Mr Trump’s denials harmed her reputation.

She could not pursue legal action against Mr Trump then for the claimed sexual assault, as it had fallen outside New York’s civil statute of limitations. The advent of New York state’s Adult Survivors Act in 2022 – which provided a one-year window allowing adult survivors of sexual misconduct to sue their accused abusers – enabled her to sue again, for the underlying assault claim.

That lawsuit also included defamation claims for Mr Trump’s comments about her after he left the White House. This second lawsuit went on trial last April and jurors awarded Ms Carroll $5 million, finding Mr Trump liable of sexual abuse and defamation for the post-presidency comments.

This week’s trial will only weigh damages for Mr Trump’s denials while he was president, which means it will in effect boil down to how much he must pay. The judge overseeing this case, Lewis Kaplan, will not allow Mr Trump’s team to relitigate Ms Carroll’s claims.

“Consequently, the fact that Mr Trump sexually abused – indeed, raped – Ms Carroll has been conclusively established and is binding in this case,” Judge Kaplan also said in a prior court ruling.

“Mr Trump is precluded from offering any testimony, evidence, or argument suggesting or implying that he did not sexually assault Ms Carroll, that she fabricated her account of the assault, or that she had any motive to do so.”

Mr Trump arrived in court sporting a dark suit and bright red tie. Despite facing stiff penalties for denying Ms Carroll’s claims, he once again doubled down on such comments.

He – or someone acting on his behalf – posted an excerpt of Carroll’s interview with Anderson Cooper, in which she discussed her claims, to Truth Social.

“Can you believe I have to defend myself against this woman’s fake story?!” he wrote.

Mr Trump’s Truth Social featured a barrage of other posts which attempted to discredit Ms Carroll, as well as criticism of the judge.

“The only right, honest, and lawful thing that Clinton-appointed Judge Lewis Kaplan, who has so far been unable to see clearly because of his absolute hatred of Donald J Trump (ME!), can do is to end this unAmerican injustice being done to a President of the United States, who was wrongfully accused by a woman he never met, saw, or touched (a photo line does not count!), and knows absolutely nothing about,” he said.

Mr Crowley referred to Mr Trump’s posts criticising Ms Carroll on the day of her trial, in explaining the point of damages.

“How much money will it take to make him stop? Because he has not stopped,” Mr Crowley said. “For more than four years, he has not stopped.

“While he was sitting there, he posted more defamatory statements, more lies about Ms Carroll … by our last count, 22 posts just today.”

Mr Trump left the courthouse at around 2pm and CNN reported that he was en route to New Hampshire for a campaign event.

Earlier, two prospective jurors were rejected from the panel during selection after answering in the affirmative when asked if they thought the 2020 presidential election had been “stolen” by Joe Biden.

Later, Ms Habba, who presented the opening for Mr Trump’s legal team, suggested that Ms Carroll was at fault for the backlash.

“She is looking for you to give her a windfall because some people on social media said mean things about her,” she said. “But in today’s day and age, the internet always has something to say, and it’s not always going to be nice.” - Guardian