卡普兰断言，特朗普只是在他自己的律师意识到该声明有多么具有潜在破坏性后才纠正了自己。
“他说照片很模糊。但就是这张照片，女士们先生们，”卡普兰说，并把卡罗尔、她当时的丈夫约翰·约翰逊、川普和他当时的妻子伊凡娜·特朗普在20世纪80年代的照片放在法庭的屏幕上。“事实是，印第安纳州的前啦啦队长e·让·卡罗尔(E. Jean Carroll)正是唐纳德·特朗普喜欢的类型。”
卡普兰将特朗普的错误身份与他在“进入好莱坞”磁带上的言论并列，他在磁带上被听到谈论女人“我开始亲吻他们...我甚至不等待“当你是一个明星，你可以“抓住他们的p -”
“唐纳德·特朗普在这里做什么?”卡普兰说。“他在用自己的话告诉你他是如何对待女人的。这是他的惯用手法。”
这位律师还重复了特朗普在作证时所说的关于明星如何逃脱行为的话。“如果你回顾过去的100万年，我想这在很大程度上是正确的。不总是这样，但大部分是真的。不管是不幸还是幸运，”特朗普说道。
“幸运还是不幸?”卡普兰告诉陪审团。“谁会说幸好来形容性侵行为?我知道是谁。他认为像他这样的明星可以逍遥法外。他认为他在这里可以逍遥法外。”
卡普兰恳求陪审团，“你必须让他为自己的所作所为负责。”
特朗普的辩护律师乔·塔科皮纳(Joe Tacopina)在结案陈词中告诉陪审团成员，“E. Jean Carroll在这里的所作所为是对正义的冒犯。”
他否认特朗普殴打或诽谤卡罗尔，他说，“唐纳德·特朗普说的只是，‘我没有这么做。’"
“唐纳德·特朗普在这里除了说这是一个谎言之外没有故事可讲，”塔科皮纳告诉陪审团。
“如果一些事情完全是编造的，那么为自己辩护的唯一方法就是挑战编造它的人和故事本身，”塔科皮纳说，描述了特朗普在法庭上面临的挑战。”不管对错，他猛烈抨击道。这并不能弥补卡罗尔女士令人难以置信的故事中证据的不足。”
E.2023年5月8日，简·卡罗尔抵达纽约曼哈顿联邦法院，接受对前总统唐纳德·特朗普的民事审判。
斯蒂芬妮·基思/盖蒂图片社
辩护律师抓住了这样一个事实，即卡罗尔已经记不起所谓的强奸的日期。注意到卡罗尔的律师提醒陪审团成员特朗普拒绝作证在为自己辩护时，塔科皮纳问陪审团成员，“我能问他什么?27或28年前的某个未知日期，你在哪里?”
"为什么在一个人的生活中没有像这样重大事件的日期?"律师说。“这不是巧合。没有日期，没有月份，没有年份，你无法提出不在场证明。”
塔科皮纳称卡罗尔的说法是“令人难以置信的虚构作品”，他说，如果被指控的袭击者是唐纳德·特朗普以外的任何人，“我们不在这里。不在这个故事上。”
“他们想要的是让你恨他恨到无视事实，”律师说。
“没有客观证据来证实她的说法，包括警方的报告，”塔科皮纳告诉陪审团。“她从来没有去报警，因为没有发生过。”
“E Jean Carroll的故事不值得你相信，”Tacopina说，她让陪审员参考前电视新闻女记者Carol Martin写的2021年短信，Carroll说她在特朗普据称袭击她的第二天讲述了所谓的强奸。
“这太夸张了，”为卡罗尔作证的马丁在2021年11月30日关于卡罗尔案件的信息中写给一个朋友。"对一些没有真正发生的事情进行过多的庆祝。"
“她要求你谴责另一个公民强奸，这是你能做的最糟糕的事情，她要求你这样做的证据在任何可信、客观的事实评估中都站不住脚，永远不会通过警方的调查，”塔科皮纳告诉陪审团。
辩方依赖于对原告的11名证人的交叉询问，包括卡罗尔本人，塔科皮纳反复问她为什么在所谓的强奸中没有尖叫。
卡普兰提醒陪审团，有一位心理学家作证说，在那些情况下，“尖叫是最不可能发生的事情之一”。
卡普兰还说，卡罗尔的其他一些行为辩方质疑与经历过创伤的人一致，包括保留她在所谓的袭击当晚穿的裙子，继续在Bergdorf Goodman购物，以及观看特朗普的《学徒》。卡普兰说，如果不做这些事情，卡罗尔就会被迫承认所谓的强奸对她影响有多深。
"为了在法庭上寻求正义，他们必须过着完全痛苦的生活吗?"卡普兰问及袭击的受害者。“当然不是。”
卡普兰要求陪审团不要具体的损害赔偿，他说这个案子不是为了钱，而是为了恢复卡罗尔的名字。
“独自生活几十年没有陪伴的代价是什么?没人一起做饭，没人陪你遛狗，没人陪你看电视?”卡普兰说。"我不打算给出一个数字。"
然而，她恳求陪审团追究特朗普的责任。
“在这个国家，即使是最有权力的人也可以在法庭上被追究责任。没有人，即使是前总统，可以凌驾于法律之上，”卡普兰说。“你的工作就是维护这一核心原则。”
在解散当天的陪审团之前，该案件的法官告诉他们，他将在周二上午向陪审团发出指示，然后开始审议。由六名男性和三名女性组成的九人陪审团将权衡卡罗尔的诽谤和殴打索赔，并决定潜在的金钱赔偿。
特朗普之后拒绝作证在上周为自己辩护时，法官让他在周日之前重新考虑，鉴于特朗普在欧洲打高尔夫球时发表的言论，他将周日下午定为特朗普提交动议的最后期限，该动议的唯一目的是作证，他将返回纽约面对指控他的人。然而，特朗普的团队没有向法院提交任何动议。
本月的审判正在进行，特朗普第三次寻求入主白宫，同时面临众多法律挑战与1月6日的国会大厦袭击有关，他在离开白宫后对机密材料的处理，以及可能试图干涉格鲁吉亚2020年的投票。
In closing argument, attorney for E. Jean Carroll says she was 'exactly' Trump's type
Attorneys for writer E. Jean Carroll chidedDonald Trumpfor failing to testify in his own defense, as closing arguments concluded Monday in Carroll's defamation and battery case against the former president.
Carroll, whobrought the lawsuitin November, alleges that Trump defamed her in his 2022Truth Social postby calling her allegations "a Hoax and a lie" and saying "This woman is not my type!" when he denied her claim that Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s.
The former Elle magazine columnist added a charge of battery under a recently adopted New York law that allows adult survivors of sexual abuse to sue their alleged attacker regardless of the statute of limitations. Trump has denied all allegations that he raped Carroll or defamed her.
"There wasn't even a 'He said,'" Carroll's attorney, Michael Ferrara, told the jury in his closing rebuttal. Carroll "showed up," said Ferrara, while Trump was "nowhere to be found."
Closing statements began with Carroll attorney Roberta Kaplan telling jury members that Carroll was "was exactly" Trump's type and that he sexually assaulted Carroll the very way he described treating women on the infamous"Access Hollywood" tape.
Kaplan once again played for the jury the excerpt of Trump's October 2022 deposition in which he momentarilymistakes Carrollfor his second wife.
"What did Mr. Trump do after I showed him that photograph?" Kaplan told the jury. "He looked at it for a moment and then, completely unprompted by me, he said, 'It's Marla.' She was exactly his type!"
Kaplan asserted that Trump only corrected himself when his own lawyer jumped in after realizing how potentially damaging the statement was.
"He said the photo was blurry. But that's the photo, ladies and gentleman," Kaplan said, putting the 1980s-era photograph of Carroll, her then-husband John Johnson, Trump, and his then-wife Ivana Trump on the screen in the courtroom. "The truth is that E. Jean Carroll, a former cheerleader and Ms. Indiana, was exactly Donald Trump's type."
Kaplan juxtaposed Trump's mistaken identification with his remarks on the "Access Hollywood" tape, on which he is heardsaying about womenthat "I just start kissing them ... I don't even wait" and that when you're a star you can "grab them by the p----."
"What is Donald Trump doing here?" Kaplan said. "He's telling you in his own words how he treats women. It's his modus operandi."
The attorney also repeated what Trump said during his deposition about how stars get away with the conduct. "Well that's what, if you look over the last million years, I guess that's been largely true. Not always, but largely true. Unfortunately or fortunately," Trump is heard saying.
"Fortunately or unfortunately?" Kaplan told the jury. "Who would say fortunately to describe the act of sexual assault? I know who. He thinks stars like him can get away with it. He thinks he can get away with it here."
Kaplan implored the jury that "you must hold him to account for what he's done."
Trump defense attorney Joe Tacopina, in his closing argument, told jury members that "what E. Jean Carroll has done here is an affront to justice."
He denied that Trump battered or defamed Carroll, saying, "All Donald Trump said was, 'I didn't do it.'"
"Donald Trump doesn't have a story to tell here other than to say it's a lie," Tacopina told the jury.
"If something is completely made up, the only way to defend yourself is by challenging the people who made it up and the story itself," Tacopina said, describing the challenge Trump faces in court. "He lashes out, rightly or wrongly. It doesn't make up for the lack of proof in Ms. Carroll's unbelievable story."
The defense attorney seized on the fact that Carroll has not been able to recall the date of the alleged rape. Noting that Carroll's attorney had reminded jury members that Trumpdeclined to testifyin his own defense, Tacopina asked jury members, "What could I have asked him? Where were you on some unknown date 27 or 28 years ago?"
"And why is there no date to an event as significant as this in someone's life?" the attorney said. "It's not a coincidence. With no date, no month, no year, you can't present an alibi."
Calling Carroll's claim "an unbelievable work of fiction," Tacopina said that if the alleged attacker was anyone but Donald Trump, "we're not here. Not on this story."
"What they want is for you to hate him enough to ignore the facts," the attorney said.
"There is no objective evidence to corroborate her claim, including a police report," Tacopina told the jury. "She never went to the police, because it didn't happen."
"E Jean Carroll's story is not worthy of your belief," said Tacopina, who referred jurors to a 2021 text message written by former television newswoman Carol Martin, who Carroll said she told about the alleged rape the day after Trump allegedly attacked her.
"It's too hyperbolic," Martin, who testified for Carroll, wrote to a friend in the Nov. 30, 2021, message regarding Carroll's case. "Too much celebratory stuff over something that hasn't really happened."
"She's asking you to condemn another citizen of rape, the worst thing you can do, and she's asking you to do it on evidence that couldn't stand up in any credible, objective fact assessment, that would never make it through a police investigation," Tacopina told the jury.
The defense is relying on cross-examination of the plaintiff's 11 witnesses, including Carroll herself, who Tacopina asked repeatedly why she did not scream during the alleged rape.
Kaplan reminded the jury of the psychologist who testified that "screaming is one of the least likely things that actually occurs" in those situations.
Kaplan also said that some of Carroll's other behaviors that thedefense questionedwere consistent with someone who experienced trauma, including keeping the dress she wore the evening of the alleged assault, continuing to shop at Bergdorf Goodman, and watching Trump on "The Apprentice." Not doing those things, Kaplan said, would have forced Carroll to acknowledge how deeply the alleged rape affected her.
"Are they required to live a life of total suffering in order to seek justice in the court?" Kaplan asked regarding victims of assault. "Of course not."
Kaplan asked the jury for no specific damage award, saying the case was not about money but about restoring Carroll's name.
"What is the price for decades of living alone without companionship? No one to cook dinner with, no one to walk your dog with, no one to watch TV with?" Kaplan said. "I'm not going to put a number on that."
She did, however, implore the jury to hold Trump accountable.
"In this country, even the most powerful person can be held accountable in court. No one, not ever a former president, is above the law," Kaplan said. "Your job is to uphold that core principle."
Before dismissing the jury for the day, the judge in the case told them he would deliver jury instructions on Tuesday morning, followed by the start of deliberations. The nine-member jury of six men and three women will weigh Carroll's defamation and battery claims, and decide potential monetary damages.
After Trumpdeclined to testifyin his own defense last week, the judge gave him until Sunday to reconsider, setting a Sunday afternoon deadline for Trump to file a motion to reopen the case for the sole purpose of testifying, in light of remarks Trump made while golfing in Europe suggesting he would return to New York to confront his accuser. However Trump's team filed no motion with the court.
This month's trial is taking place as Trump seeks the White House for a third time, while facingnumerous legal challengesrelated to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, his handling of classified material after leaving the White House, and possible attempts to interfere in Georgia's 2020 vote.
