E. Jean Carroll, the former Elle columnist who accused former President Donald Trump of rape and defamation, denied making up her claims to drive publicity for her new book.
Testifying in Manhattan federal court on Monday, Caroll said she wasn’t seeking attention from her TV and podcast appearances, while acknowledging that they were a major factor in book sales.
E. Jean Carroll defends her reputation in Trump rape accusation case – The Washington Post https://t.co/qTvapiAdR8
— Marylou von Heyman (@heyman_von) May 1, 2023
The writer also fought Trump attorney Joe Tacopina’s attempts to show that Carroll did not suffer since, contrary to Trump’s claims, the rape did not happen.
Carroll claimed that she conceals her inner pain in her capacity as an advice columnist and that attending events connected to her legal battles with Trump and publicly declaring herself to be doing “fabulous” didn’t mean she was lying about him.
“In this courtroom, I’m being forced to tell the truth,” she told Tacopina on her third and final day of testimony, including two under cross-examination.
This comes after reports revealed last month that Carroll’s defamation lawsuit against Trump had been privately funded by Reid Hoffman, the millionaire creator of LinkedIn and a major Democratic supporter.
Carroll, an American writer, columnist, and novelist, made the accusation in her 2019 memoir, “What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal,” in which she described the alleged encounter.
Trump has since denied the allegations and called Carroll a “whack job,” while his legal team ripped the writer in a court filing sent to Judge Lewis Kaplan late last month.
“The proposition that [Carroll] has suddenly ‘recollected’ the source of her funding for this high-profile litigation—which has spanned four years, spawned two separate actions, and been before numerous state, federal, and appellate courts—is not only preposterous, it is demonstrably false,” Tacopina wrote.
“Indeed, it simply defies logic to believe that [Carroll’s] attorneys—four of whom were present at her deposition—were unaware that their own firm had ‘secured additional funding from a nonprofit organization’ to bankroll their client’s various lawsuits and ensure their bills were being paid,” it continued.
Kaplan, a Clinton-appointed federal judge in New York, denied Trump’s request to delay trial, saying that there is “no justification for an adjournment” in the case brought by Carroll.
