Donald Trump’s lawyers on Wednesday said they would not present any witnesses to defend against writer E. Jean Carroll’s claim the former president brutally raped her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman after a chance encounter in the mid-1990s.
Trump originally had two people on his witness list: himself and psychiatrist Edgar Nace, who his lawyers told the court could not make it. Trump’s legal team said Monday that he didn’t plan to take the stand.
Carroll, who spent three days on the witness stand detailing the alleged assault, is still to call several witnesses, including her sister, Cande, and journalist Natasha Stoynoff, who has accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in 2005.
Judge Lewis Kaplan told jurors they would likely begin their deliberations early next week.
During the first half of Wednesday’s proceedings, jurors heard from an expert witness for Carroll, clinical psychologist Leslie Lebowitz, who testified about her extensive evaluation of Carroll.
Lebowitz said she determined Carroll had suffered significantly due to the alleged assault, including experiencing unwanted intrusive thoughts.
When he cross-examined Carroll last week, Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina asked why she didn’t scream during the alleged assault or call the police. He also tried to pick apart her memories of when the assault occurred. Carroll has acknowledged throughout the years-long litigation that she doesn’t know exactly which year it happened between 1994 and 1996.
Lebowitz said it’s common for stress hormones released during a traumatic encounter to interfere with one’s instincts. She said it’s common for victims to remember intricate details about an event and forget broader ones, like forgetting how they left, where it happened, or when it happened.
Lebowitz said her sit-downs with Carroll, over a course of 20 to 22 hours, determined she had diminished self-esteem due to the attack and avoidance, causing a complete shutdown of her ability to be intimate with another person.
“[It] made her feel like she was worth less than she had been before,” Lebowitz told the jury.
During Lebowitz’s cross-examination, Trump’s lawyer Chad Seigel drew several sustained objections for asking argumentative questions, which frustrated Judge Kaplan.
Seigel asked Lebowitz whether what Carroll had told her in the clinical evaluation benefited her case.
“I don’t believe [Carroll] did that,” Lebowitz said.
The defense lawyer also peppered Lebowitz with questions about whether Carroll was diagnosed with psychiatric issues directly from the assault. Lebowitz said she hadn’t been, though she said Carroll displayed multiple symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Carroll, 79, is suing Trump in Manhattan federal court for sexual battery and defamation. She alleges he raped her on an unoccupied floor of Bergdorf Goodman in the mid-1990s after they ran into each other in a chance encounter, and he asked her to help pick out a present for an unnamed woman.
The longtime advice columnist also says Trump defamed her in an October 2022 Truth Social post that alleged she made the whole thing up and that he had never met her.
Jurors have seen a black and white photo of Trump and Carroll at a party together in the late 1980s with her ex-husband John Johnson and his ex-wife, Ivana. In his deposition, he misidentified Carroll in the photo as his second ex-wife Marla Maples.
Trump denies all wrongdoing.