Trump’s intimate adventures could cost him millions of dollars

On Thursday, May 4, the last witness in the civil suit of the famous American journalist Jean Carroll testified, thus completing the stage of proof in court. All evidence in the case of Trump, accused of rape and defamation of Carroll, will be handed over to a jury in New York early next week.

Understanding this muddy story, the United States Senior District Judge Lewis Kaplan was waiting for only one thing – when the defendant himself (that is, Donald Trump) will enter the case. But in his usual manner, the ex-president confused everyone even more.

Earlier Thursday, while playing golf at his own Trump Doonbeg course in Ireland, the American politician said he was “going to come back” to confront Carroll in court. When questioned by Sky News, the “defendant” said: “I will probably be present at the trial and I think it’s a shame that false accusations are made against a rich guy, or in my case against a famous, rich and political person.”

However, the arrogance of the “rich guy” Trump was brought down by his lawyer Joe Tacopina, who said in court that the former president had waived his right to testify and that he was not expected to appear.

Notably, on Wednesday, the Republican leader’s defense team said the only witness (a tech expert) was too ill to testify. This meant that a jury of three women and six men only heard evidence from Carroll’s witnesses, while Trump’s legal team limited itself to trying to discredit all of the opponents’ testimony.

Recall that 79-year-old writer and columnist Jean Carroll said that Trump allegedly raped her in the fitting room of the Bergdorf Goodman department store in the mid-1990s, and then allegedly defamed her by lying about it on the Internet. The civil trial on this charge is now in its second week in federal court in New York.

Early in the trial, Carroll stated, “I’m here because Donald Trump raped me, and when I wrote about it, he lied and said it didn’t happen. He lied and ruined my reputation and I’m here to try and get my life back.”

I must say that the testimony was more like a book of erotic content (it is not surprising that for the first time accusations of this kind appeared in Carroll’s memoirs in 2019), the “victim” shared the details of that “extremely painful” meeting in such detail.

Trump, in video testimony, called all the claims of the 79-year-old writer a “scam” and a “hoax”, and also noted that he did not know this woman. And in general, it all came down to the fact that the ex-president suspected her of being a pawn of the Democrats, and her testimony was regarded as a “political attack.”

And indeed there are enough oddities in the case. Starting with the testimony of two close friends of Carroll, whom she allegedly told everything at once, but who remained silent all these years, ending with the curious words of one of the last witnesses, social media expert Ashley Humphreys. She calculated, for example, that if the jury found in favor of Carroll, the journalist would be entitled to compensation.

And the cost of the reputational damage that was allegedly caused to the victim can vary from 368 thousand dollars to 2.8 million dollars (to understand the scale, this is approximately from 29 to 220 million rubles). If you managed to be surprised, then take your time, because that’s not all. The Humphreys damage estimate did not include punitive damages or the more serious charge of battery (Trump allegedly hit her against a wall before raping her, according to Carroll), which could be expected to cost significantly more than mere defamation charges.

And back to the already mentioned friends. One of the victim’s close friends, Carol Martin, testified on the final day of testimony that two days after the alleged abuse by Trump, Carroll visited her home. She looked, according to Martin, “obviously agitated and alarmed.” The idea to remain silent about what happened belonged to Martin: “I just suggested that she do nothing, because it was Donald Trump, and he had a lot of lawyers, and he would just bury her.”

Martin said that she “kept a covenant” not to talk about what a close friend told her for many years, until everything was made public in her memoirs. And, of course, friend Jean Carroll indicated without a doubt that she “believed then and believes today” all the testimony of the columnist. But everything sounds really fantastic, since a completely logical question arises – where did so many witnesses come from?

Trump’s attitude to all this is understandable. He certainly does not take the proceedings seriously. It even shows up in some funny scenes. For example, during his October deposition, Trump was shown a black-and-white photograph of him talking to people at an event.

The politician replied, “It’s Marla,” referring to his second wife, Marla Maples. But here the lawyer again entered the case, informing Trump that it was Jean Carroll after all. In general, of course, you can confuse. Women have a lot in common. But it is rather strange that the ex-president himself made a mistake in identification, who repeatedly stated that Carroll was “not to his taste.”

But no matter how strange all the testimony may seem, the trial continues. Trump’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, promised jurors early last week to prove that Carroll and her friends conspired to falsely accuse Trump of sexual sins. Like, these people seethe with hatred for the Republican victory in the 2016 elections: “They planned to harm Donald Trump politically.” Takopina claims that all the inconsistencies in the case only indicate that there was simply no attack, this is recognized as an actual invention of an already elderly writer.

Both sides are due to present their final arguments to the jury on Monday. The very same trial is expected next week on Friday. It is, of course, impossible to predict the outcome. But if Trump still appears in court in person, then another exciting show from the Republican leader is guaranteed.