Trump lawyers say they won’t call witnesses at rape trial

May 3, 2023  -NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s lawyers said Wednesday that they will not call any witnesses at the New York civil trial arising from writer E. Jean Carroll’s claims that the former president raped her in the mid-1990s.

Trump lawyer Joseph Tacopina said they decided not to put on a defense case after learning that health issues were preventing their expert witness, a psychiatrist, from testifying. Tacopina previously disclosed that Trump would not testify at the trial, in federal court in Manhattan.

Carroll’s lawyers said they could finish presenting their case on Thursday.

They listed five remaining witnesses, including a former People magazine writer who says Trump pinned her against a wall and forcibly kissed her at his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida in 2005, an allegation he denies.

They also plan on playing excerpts of a sworn deposition that Trump gave in connection with Carroll’s lawsuit, as well as a the 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump boasted about grabbing women’s genitals.

Trump denies ever touching women against their will and has said that Carroll’s claims are politically motivated attempts to smear his reputation and deny him the White House.

His lawyers attacked Carroll’s credibility through exhaustive cross-examination, questioning why she didn’t scream out for help during the alleged attack and why she never went to police.