[ad_1]
Washington: E. Jean Carroll She testified in sometimes intense detail about the day she said Donald Trump raped her in a department store dressing room two decades before he became president, allegations the Republican has repeatedly and vehemently denied.
Two friends took the witness stand in support of Carroll this week, two friends told the jury that they spoke with the former magazine columnist shortly after the alleged 1996 attack, and that they believed she was telling the truth. Other women testified about separate encounters; One said Trump grabbed and touched her while they were on a plane in the late 1970s, while the other told jurors he forcibly kissed her at his home in Florida in 2005.
These accounts, which were shared during the civil trial over Carroll’s allegations of battery and defamation against Trump, mark the first time any of the many allegations of sexual misconduct against the former president have been heard in a court trial. Given an opportunity to refute Carroll’s accusations on the witness stand, Trump refused to appear, instead going abroad. He told reporters in Ireland that he may continue to testify in person, although his lawyer said in court that he would not and that they would not produce other witnesses.
For most politicians, the allegations made in a New York courtroom would be enough to torpedo any future aspirations. But Trump is no ordinary politician, a fact that became clear when he won the 2016 presidential contest a month after the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape in which he bragged about sexually assaulting women and said that as a star, “You can do anything.”
Now, as Trump battles for the 2024 presidential bid, Carroll’s case provides another test of Trump’s ability to survive scandals that would engulf others. Some political observers say the public has already hardened the former president’s views – love him or hate him – and allegations of his mistreatment of women are nothing new.
said Christina Wollbrecht, a professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame who studies politics and gender.
A more relevant question, she said, is whether the verdict against Trump in this trial, or convictions in other cases, will scare away potential donors or counsel.
In addition to Carroll’s case, Trump was recently charged in New York with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a silence scheme to cover up allegations of extramarital affairs during the 2016 campaign. He is also under criminal investigation over his attempts to overturn his loss in the 2020 election and withholding classified documents after leaving office. .
Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, who has worked with President Joe Biden, said that during recent focus groups she conducted with Democratic and independent likely voters about Trump and his legal troubles, women continued to volunteer that the issue they were most bothered about was ” rape case. This made Lake think that trial testimony could be more harmful than she first assumed.
I was blown away, Lake said, because I thought this was baked into how voters feel about Trump. “They knew he had no respect for women and that he was a real playboy, but rape is different.”
Stephen Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, did not respond to a message seeking comment for this story.
Trump’s other legal cases have so far caused limited political ramifications, but that may change, according to a poll conducted last month by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
It found that only 4 out of 10 adults in the United States believe Trump acted illegally in the New York silent money case. The poll found that about half of voters believe he broke the law in Georgia, where he is under investigation for interfering with vote counting in the 2020 election.
It also showed that about half of them feel similarly about Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021 storming of the US Capitol by his supporters, and his handling of classified documents found in Mar-a-Lago. The survey did not ask about Carroll’s case.
Carroll filed a defamation lawsuit against Trump while he was still president, due to the denials and insults he directed at her. The rape lawsuit was filed in November, under a New York state law that temporarily allows victims of sexual assault to sue over attacks that allegedly happened decades earlier. Because it is a civil case, not a criminal one, Trump faces no jail time; Carroll is seeking unspecified monetary damages.
Jurors saw portions of a recorded deposition in which Trump answered questions under oath last fall. He called Carol a “nut job” and “mentally ill”, adding, “She said I did something to her that never happened.” The “Access Hollywood” tape was also shown to the jury.
Trump, his lawyers and supporters have dismissed Carroll’s allegations as politically motivated attacks and an attempt to sell more copies of her memoirs. Trump said he was not in the store with Carroll and had no idea who she was when the story first went public. On his social network last week, Trump called the case “a made-up scam.”
At the trial, Trump’s attorney also questioned why Carroll had not reported the alleged assault to the police at the time; Carroll, 79, said many people her age have been conditioned to keep silent about such attacks. Carroll, a registered Democrat, testified that she voted for Trump’s Democratic opponents in 2016 and 2020, but said it had nothing to do with her lawsuit.
Rachel O’Leary-Carmona, executive director of Women’s March, said she hopes Carroll’s case will galvanize voters. After Trump’s election, millions of people turned out to protest him at women’s marches across the country, and he credits the events for sparking increased political participation by women, including seeing a record number of women elected to the US House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm elections.
“I hope we can take this moment as yet another demonstration of the very urgent need to build women’s political power in this country,” she said.
Two friends took the witness stand in support of Carroll this week, two friends told the jury that they spoke with the former magazine columnist shortly after the alleged 1996 attack, and that they believed she was telling the truth. Other women testified about separate encounters; One said Trump grabbed and touched her while they were on a plane in the late 1970s, while the other told jurors he forcibly kissed her at his home in Florida in 2005.
These accounts, which were shared during the civil trial over Carroll’s allegations of battery and defamation against Trump, mark the first time any of the many allegations of sexual misconduct against the former president have been heard in a court trial. Given an opportunity to refute Carroll’s accusations on the witness stand, Trump refused to appear, instead going abroad. He told reporters in Ireland that he may continue to testify in person, although his lawyer said in court that he would not and that they would not produce other witnesses.
For most politicians, the allegations made in a New York courtroom would be enough to torpedo any future aspirations. But Trump is no ordinary politician, a fact that became clear when he won the 2016 presidential contest a month after the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape in which he bragged about sexually assaulting women and said that as a star, “You can do anything.”
Now, as Trump battles for the 2024 presidential bid, Carroll’s case provides another test of Trump’s ability to survive scandals that would engulf others. Some political observers say the public has already hardened the former president’s views – love him or hate him – and allegations of his mistreatment of women are nothing new.
said Christina Wollbrecht, a professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame who studies politics and gender.
A more relevant question, she said, is whether the verdict against Trump in this trial, or convictions in other cases, will scare away potential donors or counsel.
In addition to Carroll’s case, Trump was recently charged in New York with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a silence scheme to cover up allegations of extramarital affairs during the 2016 campaign. He is also under criminal investigation over his attempts to overturn his loss in the 2020 election and withholding classified documents after leaving office. .
Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, who has worked with President Joe Biden, said that during recent focus groups she conducted with Democratic and independent likely voters about Trump and his legal troubles, women continued to volunteer that the issue they were most bothered about was ” rape case. This made Lake think that trial testimony could be more harmful than she first assumed.
I was blown away, Lake said, because I thought this was baked into how voters feel about Trump. “They knew he had no respect for women and that he was a real playboy, but rape is different.”
Stephen Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, did not respond to a message seeking comment for this story.
Trump’s other legal cases have so far caused limited political ramifications, but that may change, according to a poll conducted last month by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
It found that only 4 out of 10 adults in the United States believe Trump acted illegally in the New York silent money case. The poll found that about half of voters believe he broke the law in Georgia, where he is under investigation for interfering with vote counting in the 2020 election.
It also showed that about half of them feel similarly about Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021 storming of the US Capitol by his supporters, and his handling of classified documents found in Mar-a-Lago. The survey did not ask about Carroll’s case.
Carroll filed a defamation lawsuit against Trump while he was still president, due to the denials and insults he directed at her. The rape lawsuit was filed in November, under a New York state law that temporarily allows victims of sexual assault to sue over attacks that allegedly happened decades earlier. Because it is a civil case, not a criminal one, Trump faces no jail time; Carroll is seeking unspecified monetary damages.
Jurors saw portions of a recorded deposition in which Trump answered questions under oath last fall. He called Carol a “nut job” and “mentally ill”, adding, “She said I did something to her that never happened.” The “Access Hollywood” tape was also shown to the jury.
Trump, his lawyers and supporters have dismissed Carroll’s allegations as politically motivated attacks and an attempt to sell more copies of her memoirs. Trump said he was not in the store with Carroll and had no idea who she was when the story first went public. On his social network last week, Trump called the case “a made-up scam.”
At the trial, Trump’s attorney also questioned why Carroll had not reported the alleged assault to the police at the time; Carroll, 79, said many people her age have been conditioned to keep silent about such attacks. Carroll, a registered Democrat, testified that she voted for Trump’s Democratic opponents in 2016 and 2020, but said it had nothing to do with her lawsuit.
Rachel O’Leary-Carmona, executive director of Women’s March, said she hopes Carroll’s case will galvanize voters. After Trump’s election, millions of people turned out to protest him at women’s marches across the country, and he credits the events for sparking increased political participation by women, including seeing a record number of women elected to the US House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm elections.
“I hope we can take this moment as yet another demonstration of the very urgent need to build women’s political power in this country,” she said.
[ad_2]
