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E. Jean Carroll’s attorney on Monday blasted former President Donald Trump as a habitual liar who “didn’t even bother” to show up to their civil rape trial — as each side delivered closing remarks in the highly-watched case.

Trump, 76, has not attended any day of trial in Manhattan federal court and is not expected to come before its conclusion, though the jury did see 48-minutes of his video deposition by Carroll’s lawyers taken last year — in which he denied that the alleged assault happened.  

“Why would you believe him?” Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, asked of jurors in her closing statement.  “Donald Trump has told lie after lie after lie. What does this tell you? Donald Trump lies as a matter of habit.”

“You only saw him on video,” Kaplan added. “He didn’t even bother to show up here in person.”

Over the course of the seven-day trial, Carroll, 79, called ten other witnesses including two friends who she told about the alleged rape after it happened and two other Trump accusers.

Kaplan said the ex-president lied in his deposition about not frequenting the Fifth Avenue department store that was across the street from Trump Tower, a claim the attorney argued was rebutted by two former Bergdorf’s employees who testified they had seen Trump in and outside of the store.

Trump lied when he claimed he never met Carroll, Kaplan alleged, pointing to a photo of the pair and their then-respective spouses taken years earlier. 


  Jurors are expected to hear closing arguments Monday in E. Jean Carroll’s civil rape case against Donald Trump. Alec Tabak Jurors are expected to hear closing arguments Monday in E. Jean Carroll’s civil rape case against Donald Trump. Alec Tabak

And Trump’s claim that Carroll was not his type was also a lie, the attorney argued, proven by his deposition video which showed him mixing up Carroll with his ex-wife Marla Maples when shown the photo.

“The truth is that E. Jean Carroll, a former cheerleader and Miss Indiana, was exactly Donald Trump’s type,” Kaplan said.

Kaplan argued that the infamous 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape of Trump saying he grabbed women “by the p—y” and that they let him because he’s a star showed that he had a “modus operandi” or MO for allegedly sexually assaulting women.

The video is Trump “telling you in his very own words how he treats women,” Kaplan told jurors. 

During the past two weeks at trial, Carroll’s side called two other Trump accusers, Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff, to testify in an effort to show that Trump’s alleged rape of Carroll’s was not a one-off incident.

“You learned that what happened to E. Jean Carroll at Bergdorf Goodman that day was not an isolated event,” Kaplan said Monday.

“Three different women, decades apart … but one single pattern of behavior,” she said of the testimony from Carroll, Leeds and Stoynoff. “In that respect, what happened to E. Jean Carroll was not unique.”


  Carroll alleges Trump sexually assaulted her in the fitting room of Bergdorf Goodman, most likely in 1996. REUTERS Carroll alleges Trump sexually assaulted her in the fitting room of Bergdorf Goodman, most likely in 1996. REUTERS

A close friend Lisa Birnbach and pal Carol Martin both recounted for jurors when Carroll separately confided in them in the moments and days after the alleged attack. 

Kaplan said that the friends’ testimony is “rock solid evidence that all three of them are telling the truth.”

During opening arguments Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina said that the three women conspired to make up the claims against Trump for political reasons.

“In order to win, Trump needs you to conclude that not only is E. Jean Carroll lying but that all three of these women perjured themselves in this courtroom,” Kaplan said. “I think you know that isn’t true.”

Carroll’s side also called a psychologist who spoke about the damage that the alleged attack had on Carroll’s personal life. And a communications and marketing professor was called to speak about the alleged damage that Trump’s public denials of her claims wrought on her reputation as a journalist.

“The backlash from Donald Trump’s statements was terrifying,” Kaplan said of her client’s experience. “She started sleeping at night with a loaded gun in her bed.”

Carroll has said that when Trump called her a “liar” who allegedly cooked up the story to make money and push the sale of her book, that she lost her long-time job at Elle Magazine and lost millions of readers of her column.


  Jurors saw clips of Trump’s video deposition last week. AP Jurors saw clips of Trump’s video deposition last week. AP

“Donald Trump wants and needs you to disregard all the evidence you have heard in this case, to brand all the witnesses who were brave enough to come here and testify as liars,” Kaplan argued. 

Kaplan asked jurors, “Does that make any sense at all? Or does it, instead suggest that there is one person here who is lying, and that person is Donald Trump?”

The jury — which is slated to begin deliberations on Tuesday — must determine if Trump should be liable for the alleged assault and whether he allegedly defamed Carroll with his Truth Social post from October 2022 calling her accusations a “hoax.”

If the nine jurors find Carroll has proven her claims, they can award compensatory and punitive damages. The amount would be up to the jury.

Trump did not call any witnesses or present any evidence during the trial

“Trump really offers you nothing,” Kaplan said. “It’s Trump’s word against everyone else’s word.”

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