E. Jean Carroll says Harvey Weinstein, #MeToo movement made her come forward about Trump

E. Jean Carroll returned to the witness stand on Thursday in her federal battery and defamation lawsuit in opposition to former President Donald Trump.

Defense legal professional Joe Tacopina puzzled Carroll’s decision-making after Trump allegedly raped her.

“You said you left Bergdorf Goodman without seeking any help from employees or security at that point?” Tacopina requested. “Yes,” Carroll spoke back.

Carroll mentioned she left the shop and known as her good friend Lisa Birnbach. “On a cell phone?” Tacopina requested. When Carroll affirmed that she used a mobile phone, Tacopina requested: “On that cell phone, you could have just as easily called 911?”

“Yes, I could have called 911,” Carroll mentioned.

Tacopina puzzled the intensity of the friendship between Carroll and Birnbach, announcing, “You can’t name another personal matter of yours that you confided in her prior to this alleged incident?”

Carroll mentioned Birnbach “was exactly the person I needed to talk to,” describing her as humorous and “I would feel better if Lisa laughed.”

Instead, when Carroll advised Birnbach about Trump allegedly flattening her tights, she mentioned Birnbach stopped her.

“When I heard the words Lisa said, ‘he raped you,’ those are the words that brought the reality to my mind,” Carroll mentioned. “To hear Lisa Birnbach say the word rape. Even though I had just been, it’s hard, when something horrible happens to you, it’s hard to grasp what happened.”

Carroll mentioned she advised no physician, noticed no psychiatrist or psychologist, and had no clinical information appearing bodily damage.

Tacopina identified that Carroll, a author who stored a diary, made no access about the alleged stumble upon with Trump.

“I always thought if I wrote something bad I’d have to think about it. If I write about it, I think about it,” Carroll mentioned.

“But you wrote a book about the worst thing that ever happened to you,” Tacopina mentioned.

“I thought it was time not to be silent,” Carroll mentioned.

The pass judgement on rapidly ended testimony for the day when Tacopina requested Carroll about preserving the get dressed she wore the day she used to be allegedly raped. With the jury out, Tacopina confident the pass judgement on he used to be now not going anyplace close to DNA, a contentious pretrial factor that the pass judgement on didn’t permit at trial.

Tacopina urged previous within the day that Carroll had political motives for submitting her go well with. He confirmed the jury an electronic mail that contained a draft excerpt from the e book Carroll wrote. One bankruptcy refers to her alleged rape by means of Trump.

“He’s poisoning my water, he’s polluting my air, he’s cooking my planet … and as he stacks the courts, my rights over my body are being taken away state by state. I’m afraid my right to free speech will go next. So now I will tell you what happened,” the message mentioned.

Carroll spoke back that the message contained a draft that used to be by no means revealed.

Tacopina then puzzled why Carroll may just now not pinpoint a date the alleged rape befell.

“I wish to heaven we could give you a date,” Carroll mentioned.

Tacopina urged Carroll most effective advised her tale about Trump to promote a e book.

“You thought including the story about Donald Trump while he was still president would help sell the book?” he requested.

“I thought so but I was wrong,” Carroll mentioned. She had up to now testified her e book didn’t promote smartly.

Tacopina then requested, “In two decades, you don’t call the police, correct?” Carroll spoke back, “Correct.”

“In two decades you never revealed this story in your hundreds of your advice columns, correct?” Tacopina mentioned.

“Correct,” Carroll mentioned.

“Only when you were trying to get a publisher and sell your book?” Tacopina requested, to which Carroll spoke back her tale got here out after The New York Times revealed its landmark tale about Harvey Weinstein.

“And when that happened, across the country, women began telling their stories. And I was flummoxed. Can we actually speak up and not be pummeled? I thought, well, this may be a way to change the culture of sexual violence. The light dawned. I thought we can actually change things if we actually tell our stories,” Carroll mentioned.

“So it was Harvey Weinstein and all the women against him that caused you to leap into action?” Tacopina requested.

Carroll spoke back, “It caused me to realize that staying silent does not work. We have a chance of limiting the harm that happens.”

Carroll additionally advised the jury she used to be assaulted by means of then-CBS chairman Les Moonves after an interview. She mentioned she and Moonves entered an elevator after which “he pushed me up against the wall.”

She didn’t sue Moonves, Carroll mentioned, as a result of “he did not defame me. He did not call me a liar.”

Carroll, on the other hand, sued Trump in November 2019 “because he called me a liar. Because he said I accused other men of rape. He said I was an operative or in a conspiracy with the Democratic Party … and he said I was too ugly to rape. So I sued him.”

Carroll mentioned nobody advised satisfied her to sue, however she “had a conversation” with Republican attorney and Trump critic George Conway, who Carroll mentioned “does not like Donald Trump.”

After Trump’s protection legal professional claimed Carroll used to be out for cash, she mentioned she used to be now not suffering financially when she filed her lawsuit and used to be now not searching for a big payoff.

“It’s not about the money. It’s about getting my name back,” Carroll mentioned, including that she is continuously beneath danger.

“This morning, for instance, I thought I would just take a peek at my Twitter. And there it was again, the onslaught of the lair, slut, ugly, old. It’s not a great way to begin the day. But I could not be more proud to be here,” she mentioned.

On Wednesday, Carroll described in now and again graphic phrases the ache of the alleged attack and the burden of Trump’s frame in opposition to her.

“I remember him being — he was very large and his whole weight came against my chest and held me up there, and he leaned down and pulled down my tights,” Carroll, who testified for almost three-and-a-half hours, mentioned.

Her testimony will have additionally given the protection a gap since Carroll conceded she “wasn’t 100% certain” when the alleged assault befell.

“This question, the when, the when, the date has just been something that I am constantly trying to pin down. It’s very difficult,” Carroll mentioned.

Carroll’s legal professionals requested her whether or not she had watched “The Apprentice,” Trump’s fact tv display. When she mentioned she had, her legal professional, Michael Ferrara, requested why.

“I love the premise of ambitious young businesspeople competing for a job. I thought that was really quite witty and it was different. It was so much better than, you know, the dating contests and the beauty contests and those — this was a real contest where you could watch it and learn a thing or two. It was very — it was beautifully produced,” Carroll mentioned.

It stays unclear if Trump will testify himself. The pass judgement on demanded to understand this week whether or not Trump will seem, telling the protection that it used to be time to “fish or cut bait.”

Trump has denied all allegations that he raped Carroll or defamed her.

The trial is predicted to final about 5 days. The nine-member jury of six males and 3 ladies is weighing Carroll’s defamation and battery claims and deciding doable financial damages.

Trial does now not sit down on Fridays; Carroll’s cross-examination will resume Monday.

This week’s trial is happening as Trump seeks the White House for a 3rd time whilst dealing with a lot of felony demanding situations associated with the Jan. 6 Capitol assault, his dealing with of labeled subject material after leaving the White House and imaginable makes an attempt to intervene in Georgia’s 2020 vote. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis mentioned Monday she would make a decision whether or not to report felony fees in opposition to Trump or his allies this summer season.

Carroll’s lawsuit is her 2d in opposition to Trump associated with her rape allegation.