Former President Donald Trump will not put up a defense in his civil trial on allegations that he raped former columnist E. Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s, his attorneys told a judge presiding over the case Wednesday.
Trump's legal team had planned an expert witness to attempt to rebut Carroll's allegations in the case, but that witness was unable to testify due to "health issues," attorney Joe Tacopina told U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan.
DONALD TRUMP TRIAL: WITNESS SAYS CARROLL WAS 'HYPERVENTILATING' AFTER ALLEGED RAPE
The expert was one of two people on the defense's witness list before the trial in a Manhattan court. The other person was Trump, though Tacopina confirmed on Tuesday that the former president would not be appearing to testify.
"It is his call," Kaplan replied Tuesday.
Carroll's legal team called in a clinical psychologist Wednesday who testified that Carroll exhibited signs of trauma that are common among rape victims.
“For many years, she just simply blamed herself for the assault, thought she just did something stupid and that’s why it happened,” Leslie Lebowitz, a psychologist hired by Carroll’s attorneys, said. She clarified that she had no independent knowledge about whether Carroll was or wasn't raped when pressed by an attorney for Trump.
Trump has vehemently denied Carroll's accusations that he raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store, calling her claims a "hoax" and that she's not his "type." Carroll is suing him for defamation and battery. Trump contends there was no defamation because he says he's telling the truth.
Carroll maintains that she never reported the alleged rape to police because she felt ashamed and was afraid of taking on a wealthy businessman. She said she was inspired to speak out in part due to the 2019 #MeToo movement and motivated to sue by prominent Trump critic and attorney George Conway.
Trump's accuser sued in December after New York passed a law allowing a one-year window for adult victims of sexual offenses to file civil suits even after the statute of limitations on their claims had expired.
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The nine-member jury, composed of six men and three women, will still hear testimony from videotapes of Trump taken when he sat down for a sworn deposition in October. It would only take one member of the jury who doubts Carroll's account to not hold Trump liable.
Carroll is slated to rest her case on Thursday, and jury deliberations will begin early next week. She is seeking unspecified damages.