Trump rape accuser notes social media attacks: 'I couldn’t be more proud to be here'
Author E. Jean Carroll, who has accused former President Trump of raping her in the 1990s, said she “couldn’t be more proud” to testify in the civil trial, despite social media attacks against her.
Carroll told a jury on Thursday that social media users have called her a “liar, slut, ugly, old,” but she testified, “I couldn’t be more proud to be here.”
Carroll, 79, has accused Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York City in the 1990s. The longtime Elle columnist is suing for battery and defamation — claiming that Trump defamed her when he denied the allegations.
“I’ll say it with great respect: Number one, she’s not my type. Number two, it never happened. It never happened, OK?” Trump told The Hill in an interview shortly after the story surfaced in 2019. Trump, 76, is not expected to appear at the current trial.
Jury selection began in the suit on Tuesday.
“I’m here because Donald Trump raped me, and when I wrote about it, he said it didn’t happen,” Carroll told the jury. “He lied and shattered my reputation, and I’m here to try and get my life back.”
The Associated Press contributed.