Global Courant 2023-05-03 05:15:23
JANE ROSENBERG
At the end of the proceedings Tuesday, Donald Trump’s lawyer informed the court that the former president will not testify in his defense.
In a trial that has gone pretty badly for Trump, he won’t be bothered to make a last-ditch effort to win over the jury by testifying that he didn’t rape E. Jean Carroll and then faces a cross-examination. Essentially, his defense now rests on his lawyers’ cross-examination of E. Jean Carroll, which was appalling.
Even though Trump’s decision not to testify makes it much more likely that the jury will find him wrong, I think he and his lawyers are making a wise decision. The former president is currently being charged in New York with 37 counts of false statements. He also faces an open investigation in Fulton County, Georgia, where District Attorney Fani Willis has announced she will announce whether she plans to indict Trump by early summer.
Special Counsel Jack Smith is also deciding whether to press charges against Trump for hoarding classified documents discovered in his office and residence in Mar-A-Lago and/or for his role in the January 6 uprising.
It’s important to note that any statement Trump would make on the witness stand during this trial could be used in any of those cases as well.
In addition, Trump faces the theoretical possibility of criminal charges for the rape of E. Jean Carroll. In New York, there is no statute of limitations for first-degree rape. If he took the stand and melted (like Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men), he could be sued by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg. So while choosing not to testify is a bad option, it’s probably the best bad option available to the former president right now.
Prior to the decision, Tuesday’s events brought more bad news for Trump. New York Times best-selling author Lisa Birnbaum took the stand, testifying that E. Jean Carroll told her that Trump raped her in a dressing room in the lingerie section of a Bergdorf Goodman store the same day it happened. Birnbaum’s testimony was allowed as an exception to the hearsay rule because it was offered to refute Trump’s claim that Carroll only recently came up with the “fabrication” that she was raped by Trump.
Story continues
The appalling cross-examination of Trump attorney Joe Tacopina gets even worse
Birnbaum’s testimony was detailed and unequivocal. She testified that Carroll told her about the rape in graphic terms, which caused Birnbaum to leave the room where she was feeding her children. Birnbaum testified that Carroll told her that Trump had followed her into a locker room at Bergdorf’s, slammed her against a wall, pulled down her tights, and then penetrated her with his “penis.” Birnbaum testified that she didn’t want to continue the conversation in front of her children (who were 3 and 6 years old at the time), so she took the phone to another room for about five minutes. When she returned, she reheated the chicken nuggets she had given her children for dinner. In my experience, the detail about the chicken nuggets is the kind of clear memory that leads jurors to believe that a witness is providing an authentic memory.
Birnbaum’s cross-examination didn’t move her story at all. During her direct questioning, Birnbaum admitted that she “loathed” Donald Trump. The cross-examination only brought up additional examples of Birnbaum expressing her hatred of Trump, such as comparing him to “herpes,” calling him “demented,” and a “Russian agent.” On referral, Birnbaum testified that she was told that Trump raped Carroll long before he was a political figure, and that she would not lie to prevent Trump from becoming president.
Carroll also presented Jessica Leeds, who testified that she was sexually assaulted by Trump on a flight in 1979 or 1980, while sitting next to him in first class. “It was like he had forty trillion hands,” she said at one point. She testified that he put his hands up her skirt and grabbed her vagina — and that she ended the assault by returning to her originally assigned seat on the bus.
Carroll’s attorneys then introduced a video of Anderson Cooper interrogating Trump in the 2016 debate over the Access Hollywood tape “grab them by the pussy.” During that debate, Trump denied ever actually grabbing a woman’s vagina without consent. Leeds testified that it made her “furious” to hear that because he had done just that to her.
Trump jury hears accusation that he groped a woman on a flight
In a final twist of the knife, Leeds testified about a last meeting with Trump, at a benefit gala in 1981, which he attended with his first wife, Ivana, who was pregnant at the time. Leeds testified that as she walked over to the couple, Donald turned to her and said, “I remember you, you’re that bastard from the plane.” Leeds testified that she was stunned by the reaction and immediately left the event.
Again, the cross-examination did little to shake the damning testimony. Leeds admitted that she did not know Donald Trump before he attacked her in flight, but that she was absolutely certain that the man who attacked her was Donald Trump.
At the end of the day, Carroll’s lawyers informed the court that they expected to close their case Thursday morning. Trump’s lawyers then revealed that Trump would not testify. Judge Kaplan stated he would instruct the jury and deliver closing arguments on Friday, May 5 or Monday, May 8.
Ultimately, this ordeal can be like “the sound of one hand clapping.” E. Jean Carroll will have testified to rape by Donald Trump. She will have presented numerous corroborating witnesses. Donald Trump will not have presented evidence for himself, relying instead on the jurors not to believe the testimony of the plaintiff and her witnesses.
Only those jurors know what their verdict will be.
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