Ex-President Donald Trump’s accuser claimed that he raped her regardless of if she screamed or not.
Columnist E Jean Carroll faced cross-examination on her second day on the witness stand Thursday in Federal District Court in Manhattan. Carroll, 79, claims that Trump, 76, sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in 1996.
Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina barraged Carroll with dozens of questions on why she did not scream during the alleged rape.
‘I’m not a screamer,’ she said. ‘You can’t beat up on me for not screaming.’
Carroll added: ‘People always ask, “Why didn’t you scream?” It keeps women silent.’
Tacopina painted a picture of Carroll waiting more than two decades to go public with her accusations so that she could sell more copies of a 2019 memoir.
Carroll pushed back, saying that 2017 rape allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and the surrounding #MeToo movement of women sharing their stories of sexual abuse prompted her to speak up.
‘It caused me to realize that staying silent does not work,’ she said.
As Tacopina continued to press Carroll on why she did not scream, she raised her voice and said: ‘I’m telling you: He raped me whether I screamed or not.’
Tacopina brought up an excerpt from Carroll’s 2019 book she was working on but was never published.
‘I’ve become persuaded that he wants to kill me… as he stacks the courts, my rights over my body are being taken away… I’m afraid that my right to free speech will go next,’ Carroll wrote.
Her excerpt also stated that Trump was ‘poisoning my water’ and ‘he’s polluting my air’.
Tacopina questioned Carroll on why she could not recall the exact date that Trump allegedly raped her.
‘I wished to heaven we could give you a date,’ Carroll replied.
In opening statements, Tacopina had said Trump cannot give an alibi without knowing the precise date of Carroll’s allegation.
Tacopina aimed to highlight Carroll’s lapses in memory. He asked her if she first spotted Trump through a revolving door.
‘I know it’s a revolving door,’ she said.
Then Tacopina pointed out an excerpt from her book in which she wrote that it ‘could have been a regular door at that time, I can’t recall’.
The cross-examination began tense, with Tacopina saying, ‘good morning’, and Carroll not saying anything but nodding slightly. She responded after Tacopina’s second ‘good morning’.
Trump’s lawyer asked Carroll detailed questions, like if his client said the word ‘lingerie’ in asking her to advise him on a gift for another woman. Tacopina also asked which floor of the store she and Trump were on.
US District Judge Lewis Kaplan on various occasions called out Tacopina for ‘repetitive’ and ‘argumentative’ questions to Carroll.
Carroll took the stand on the third day of the trial at 10.30am, with one of her attorneys, Mike Ferrara, finishing up his questioning that began on Wednesday.
Kaplan dismissed the jury in the late afternoon and said the trial would resume on Monday. Tacopina said he was ‘more than halfway’ through questioning Carroll. The judge reminded jurors not to speak or read about the case.
Shortly before the jury was dismissed, Trump held a campaign speech in New Hampshire. He slammed his other legal cases he faces, but did not mention Carroll or the rape trial. Trump has not yet appeared in court for the rape trial and is not obligated to.