Carroll’s Friend Tells of a Fraught Call Reporting an Attack by Trump

 

Carroll’s Friend Tells of a Fraught Call Reporting an Attack by Trump

 

E. Jean Carroll, who has accused the former president of raping her, has finished her cross-examination. On Tuesday, her lawyers called witnesses to bolster her case.

 

By Kate Christobek, Benjamin Weiser and Lola Fadulu

May 2, 2023

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/02/nyregion/trump-carroll-rape-lawsuit.html

 

During her testimony in the civil trial against former President Donald J. Trump, E. Jean Carroll told the jury that she had called a friend immediately after leaving the department store where she said he had raped her in the mid-1990s. On Tuesday, that friend took the witness stand.

 

“I am here because my friend, my good friend, who is a good person, told me something terrible that happened to her, and, as a result, she lost her employment and her life became very, very difficult,” said Lisa Birnbach, an author and journalist.

 

“I want the world to know that she was telling the truth,” Ms. Birnbach added on the trial’s fifth day in Federal District Court in Manhattan.

 

Ms. Birnbach’s testimony came after Ms. Carroll had undergone two days of cross-examination by Joseph Tacopina, Mr. Trump’s lawyer. Mr. Trump, who has avoided coming to court, has denied all wrongdoing.

 

After testimony ended Tuesday and the jury was sent home, Mr. Tacopina told the judge, Lewis A. Kaplan, that Mr. Trump would not be coming to court to testify.

 

“It is his call,” Judge Kaplan said, adding, “He understands that, right?”

 

“Correct,” Mr. Tacopina said.

 

The Accusation

Ms. Carroll said she was leaving Bergdorf Goodman one evening in the mid-1990s just as Mr. Trump was entering the store. He recognized her and persuaded her to help him shop for a gift for a female friend. She said the former president went on to attack her in a dressing room in the lingerie department.

 

Two lawsuits. E. Jean Carroll, a writer who says former President Donald Trump raped her in the mid 1990s, has filed two separate lawsuits against the former president. Here’s what to know:

 

Who is E. Jean Carroll and what does she claim? Carroll is a journalist and a onetime advice columnist for Elle magazine. She wrote about the alleged assault in a 2019 memoir, claiming that Trump had attacked her in the dressing room of a department store. The account was the most serious of several sexual misconduct allegations women have made against Trump, all of which he has denied.

 

How did Trump respond to her claims? After Carroll’s account appeared as an excerpt of her book in New York magazine, Trump emphatically denied her accusations, saying that she was “totally lying,” that the assault had never occurred and that he could not have raped her because she was not his “type.”

 

On what grounds is Carroll suing Trump for rape? In May, New York passed a law giving adult sexual assault victims a one-time opportunity to file civil cases, even if the statute of limitations has long expired. Carroll subsequently filed a lawsuit, accusing Trump of rape and seeking damages.

 

Why did she also sue him for defamation? In 2019, Carroll filed a defamation lawsuit against Trump in New York for making disparaging comments and branding her a liar after the publication of her memoir. On Oct. 19, the former president was questioned under oath in the case. That suit is currently tied up in an appeal.

 

The Phone Call

Ms. Birnbach testified that she was in her kitchen feeding her children dinner at around 6 p.m. in the spring of 1996 when she got a call from Ms. Carroll.

 

“She said, ‘Lisa, you are not going to believe what happened to me,’” Ms. Birnbach testified. She said Ms. Carroll sounded “breathless, hyperventilating, emotional.”

 

 

As she listened to the story, Ms. Birnbach said she found it surprising Ms. Carroll had visited the lingerie department with Mr. Trump. “I thought it was kind of nutty,” she said.

 

“E. Jean said to me many times, ‘He pulled down my tights, he pulled down my tights,’ almost like she couldn’t believe it,” Ms. Birnbach testified about the call. She described how Ms. Carroll told her that Mr. Trump penetrated her with his penis.

 

Ms. Birnbach said she ducked into another room, so her children would not overhear her, and whispered to Ms. Carroll, telling her that she had been raped and should go to the police. Ms. Birnbach said Ms. Carroll told her she wouldn’t and asked Ms. Birnbach never to speak again about what she had told her. Ms. Birnbach testified that they hadn’t talked again about what was shared on that phone call until 2019.

 

Motivation in Question

During Ms. Birnbach’s cross-examination, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, W. Perry Brandt, zeroed in on her political leanings.

 

Ms. Birnbach, a Democrat, willingly acknowledged making campaign contributions to Hillary Clinton and Joseph R. Biden Jr.

 

Mr. Brandt also spent several minutes delving into a podcast Ms. Birnbach hosted from 2018 to 2021. He read excerpts from transcripts of episodes in which Ms. Birnbach called Mr. Trump “Vladimir Putin’s asset” and “a narcissistic sociopath.”

 

After an objection from Shawn G. Crowley, one of Ms. Carroll’s lawyers, Mr. Brandt explained that his line of questioning was meant to demonstrate bias.

 

“Oh, really?” Judge Kaplan responded sarcastically, eliciting a rare laugh from the otherwise poker faced jurors.

 

The Airplane Flight

Jessica Leeds, a former stockbroker who said Mr. Trump assaulted her on an airplane in the late 1970s, also testified Tuesday afternoon. Ms. Carroll’s attorneys called her to establish Mr. Trump’s “modus operandi.”

 

Ms. Leeds said she had been flying home to New York when a flight attendant invited her to first class. She testified that there was one empty seat — next to Mr. Trump.

 

Ms. Leeds, who said she didn’t know Mr. Trump, shook hands and spoke with him briefly. Then “out of the blue,” Ms. Leeds said, Mr. Trump “decided to kiss me and grope me.”

 

“It’s like he had 40 zillion hands,” Ms. Leeds said, adding that he put his hand up her skirt. She said she managed to wriggle away before returning to her original seat.

 

Some years later, Ms. Leeds said, she was at a charity event in Manhattan when she ran into Mr. Trump and his wife at the time, Ivana. They approached the table where she was volunteering. Mr. Trump said he remembered her, addressing her with a vulgar, anatomical epithet.

 

Ms. Leeds said she went public with her accusation in 2016 during Mr. Trump’s presidential run. And the jury was shown a video of Mr. Trump denying her allegation, telling a crowd at a rally, “Believe me, she would not be my first choice, that I can tell you.”

 

Benjamin Weiser is a reporter covering the Manhattan federal courts. He has long covered criminal justice, both as a beat and investigative reporter. Before joining The Times in 1997, he worked at The Washington Post. @BenWeiserNYT

 

Lola Fadulu is a general assignment reporter on the Metro desk.

 

A version of this article appears in print on May 3, 2023, Section A, Page 14 of the New York edition with the headline: Friend Takes Stand to Testify About Call After Attack. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe