Former Elle magazine writer E. Jean Carroll said Wednesday she believes President Donald Trump might have influenced at least one juror not to find him liable for battery and defamation if he had testified in the first civil trial she filed against him.
Carroll sued Trump, accusing him of raping her in a Manhattan Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s and later defaming her. In May 2023, a jury found Trump liable for battery and defamation, but not rape.
During a joint Substack livestream with former U.S. attorney Joyce Vance, Carroll shared her view that the jury’s makeup could have favored Trump if he had taken the witness stand, according to the Daily Caller on Friday.
Carroll said Trump was golfing in Doonbeg, Ireland during the trial and was persuaded by his attorney Joe Tacopina not to testify. She added that had Trump testified, lawyer Robbie Kaplan would have cross-examined him for about seven hours, which Carroll believed would have been very damaging.
Despite this, Carroll suggested Trump’s strong base of supporters could have helped him convince at least one juror. She pointed out that Trump had twice survived impeachment and was running first in the presidential race when