“Are you on Truth Social, Ms. Carroll?”
On the second day of her testimony on Thursday, as one of her lawyers questioned her, the magazine writer and longtime Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll was revisiting the past few years of her experience of social media. She was, she told her attorney, on the platform, former president Donald Trump’s hastily launched Twitter clone. Carroll sued Trump in November over her allegation, which she first made in 2019, that the former president raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in 1996. Since coming forward with her accusation, which Trump denies, Carroll said she’s seen her daily life shaped by the kind of discourse that’s become familiar to just about every American following along with the Trump era. In October 2022, Trump wrote on Truth Social that Carroll’s lawsuit against him was a “a complete con job” and “a Hoax and a lie.”
Carroll advocated for the new New York state law under which she is suing Trump, which provided a one-year window for adult sexual abuse victims to bring lawsuits against their alleged abusers after the statute of limitations has passed. (The trial is in federal court because Carroll and Trump reside in different states.) In the Manhattan courtroom Thursday, during her second day of testimony, her attorney asked Carroll why she had done so. “Because I understand why women, particularly, and some men, do not come forward,” she replied. “It takes years, and some maturity, and age.”
As a veteran magazine writer, Carroll has in recent years turned the focus of her work and public statements to such questions. Testifying in a federal courthouse, she reflected on many of the common matters that often go unaddressed in high-profile sex abuse trials. There’s a playbook for defense attorneys in these cases: They poke for inconsistencies and ask why alleged victims didn’t do one thing or another at the time they say they were abused. Joe Tacopina, the celebrity lawyer representing Trump, repeatedly sparred with Carroll about her account. They went back and forth about the meaning of several words such as “inconceivable,” “satire,” and “skimpy,” with Tacopina painting himself as a folksy foil to the literary-minded witness. He asked why she didn’t scream, and provoked one of the day’s highest-temperature moments.
“He raped me whether I screamed or not,” Carroll said, her voice rising.
“You need a minute, Ms. Carroll?”
“No, go right on.”
Tacopina, wearing a tight suit with his hair gelled, has previously represented Alex Rodriguez and A$AP Rocky. In recent weeks, he has become a cable news fixture on account of his involvement in Trump’s other ongoing Manhattan legal matter. Carroll was aware of the persona.
“You work out all the time,” she said to Tacopina at one point. “We’ve read about it.”
Tacopina seemed to have to stop himself from engaging.
Earlier this month, when Trump was indicted on charges of falsifying business records, his arrival from Palm Beach for his arraignment was an all-day news event. (He pleaded not guilty.) On Thursday, as Carroll testified, Trump was campaigning in New Hampshire to reclaim the presidency. Nearby the courthouse, a film crew was shooting the CBS procedural FBI and a tour group stared down One World Trade Center. Some of the crowd gathered around Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse were there for the British singer Ed Sheeran’s copyright infringement trial. (He has denied claims of copying a Marvin Gaye song.)
During his questioning, Carroll’s attorney displayed several of the tweets that have been directed at her. Trump’s initial denial in June 2019 infamously centered on his description of Carroll as “not my type.” Years on, his supporters were continuing to echo the idea. Carroll said the comments she’s received remain “equally disparaging and hurtful” relative to the initial blowback.
“I looked at my Twitter this morning,” she said. “They haven’t stopped.”
Dan Adler
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