May 3 (UPI) — A lawyer for former President Donald Trump told the judge presiding over E. Jean Carroll’s civil rape trial on Wednesday that the defense has no witnesses. The case could head to the jury as early as next week.
Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina told U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan that the expert witness for the defense to rebut Carroll’s allegations is unable to testify “due to health issues.”
The only other witness on the defense list from before the trial was Trump, who will not testify. Lawyers for Carroll have said they have no plans to call the former president as a witness, but may show the jury portions of Trump’s video deposition.
Without witnesses, Trump’s lawyers could use testimony from their cross-examinations of Carroll, and those who testified on her behalf, when making their closing arguments.
On Tuesday, a second accuser and a friend of Carroll testified for the plaintiff.
Carroll’s friend, author and journalist Lisa Birnbach, told the jury that she received a call from Carroll minutes after she was allegedly raped by Trump in a New York department store in the 1990s. Birnbach said “I want the world to know that she is telling the truth.”
Another witness, Jessica Leeds, testified Tuesday that Trump groped her during a flight in 1979, as Carroll’s lawyers attempted to show jurors a pattern of behavior.
Carroll filed the lawsuit in November, claiming that Trump defamed her in a 2022 Truth Social post when he called her allegations a “hoax and a lie” and when he said “This woman is not my type!”
She added the battery charge after New York passed the Adult Survivors Act, allowing victims to file civil suits beyond the criminal statute of limitations.
Carroll, who is seeking unspecified monetary damages, finished her testimony Monday. She explained why she did not scream and did not call the police after the alleged rape, saying she was “ashamed of what happened” and would “never, never, never go to the police ever.”
On cross-examination, Tacopina tried to discredit Carroll, who said she was scarred by the assault, by showing the jury receipts totaling $13,000 from 23 shopping trips between 2001 and 2018 to Bergdorf Goodman in New York, where the alleged rape took place.
Trump has denied the allegations by Leeds and has denied meeting Carroll, claiming he does not know who she is.
During the trial, Trump’s lawyers accused Judge Kaplan of making numerous “unfair” rulings against him, including repeated sustained “improper” objections. Trump’s team filed a motion for a mistrial, which was denied Monday.