In the rape and defamation case brought by E. Jean Carroll against Donald Trump, Trump’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, cross-examines Carroll and asks why she didn’t defend herself better.
Today in court in lower Manhattan, Donald Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina tried to catch the ever-poised writer E. Jean Carroll on gaps in her memory. Had Carroll met Trump at a party in 1987, 35 whole years ago? Did Trump wave to Carroll on the street in 1994 or in 1995 — and was she even sure he was waving at her? And what, exactly, made Carroll now think the alleged attack had happened on a Thursday night when she had been fuzzy on the weekday after so many years?
These questions didn’t quite have the gotcha effect Tacopina intended in the mostly packed Manhattan federal courtroom, given that Carroll’s own lawyer picked at these very gaps during her direct testimony the day before. Carroll had already admitted that her memory wasn’t perfect, that she didn’t have all the answers. She confessed to blaming herself over and over and over again for going into the Bergdorf Goodman dressing room around early 1996 where, she said, Trump violently raped her. (The civil trial began this week with a speedy jury selection on Tuesday.)
Not long after 2 p.m., Tacopina’s cross took an eyebrow-raising turn — he repeatedly grilled Carroll about why she didn’t scream. Was it true, Tacopina asked, that she never screamed — but instead started laughing when Trump allegedly slammed his mouth against hers? “Laughing is a good, may I use the word ‘weapon,’ to calm a man down if he has any erotic intention,” Carroll said.
