On Tuesday, lawyers for the writer E. Jean Carroll are calling additional witnesses to bolster her case that Donald J. Trump raped her in a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s.
The first person called was Lisa Birnbach, a journalist, author and close friend of Ms. Carroll. Ms. Carroll has said she called Ms. Birnbach shortly after the alleged rape.
Ms. Carroll on Monday ended two days of cross-examination by Joseph Tacopina, Mr. Trump’s lawyer, about her allegation. Mr. Trump, who has avoided coming to court, has denied all wrongdoing.
The Accusation
Ms. Carroll says she visited Bergdorf Goodman one evening in the mid-1990s. As she was leaving through a revolving door, Mr. Trump entered and recognized her, she has testified, and persuaded her to help him shop for a gift for a female friend. She has accused the former president of going on to attack her in a dressing room in the lingerie department.
What Tuesday May Hold
Shawn G. Crowley, a lawyer for Ms. Carroll, said last week that the jury would hear from the two friends that Ms. Carroll confided in immediately after the alleged rape, Ms. Birnbach and Carol Martin.
Ms. Crowley said the jury would also hear from several other witnesses, including Dr. Leslie Lebowitz, a clinical psychologist and trauma specialist; Ashlee Humphreys, a professor who is an expert in sociology and communications; and Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff, two other women who have accused Mr. Trump of sexual assault.
Ms. Birnbach’s testimony could be critical because she may be able to help narrow down when precisely the decades-old attack occurred, which Ms. Carroll has not been able to state — an omission Mr. Trump’s lawyer has harped on.
In the Courtroom
Mr. Tacopina, in his questioning Monday, focused on Ms. Carroll’s memory of what happened that day nearly 30 years ago. He pointed out what he described as inconsistencies between her testimony in the case and her previous interviews and depositions, trying to suggest that she had benefited from making the allegation.
Mr. Tacopina asked about her 2019 appearance on a podcast called “The Maris Review,” during which Ms. Carroll said her life was “fabulous.”
“It is the way I present myself to the world,” Ms. Carroll testified. “I do not want anyone to know that I suffered,” she added.
Mr. Tacopina also focused on her testimony that she had been fired from Elle magazine after Mr. Trump denied her allegation in 2019 and called her a liar. Mr. Tacopina questioned Ms. Carroll about an email exchange in which she suggested she was in fact fired because she had published an excerpt from her book in a competing outlet, New York Magazine.
Ms. Carroll acknowledged that Nina Garcia, the editor in chief of Elle magazine, was “very angry” at her for publishing the excerpt elsewhere, but added that she took a hit when Mr. Trump “called me a liar for three straight days.”
“My trustworthiness was exploded,” Ms. Carroll said. “It was like — just crumbled, the foundation on which the whole column had rested for 27 years.”
