Donald Trump never showed it….
THAT CAN be held against him…..
Any bets on the verdict?
On Tuesday, the jurors are to begin deliberations after the judge, Lewis A. Kaplan, instructs them on the law. Ms. Carroll’s lawsuit, brought under a New York law that provides a one-year windowfor sexual abuse victims to sue, seeks damages for battery and defamation: Mr. Trump on his Truth Social website had called Ms. Carroll’s case “a complete con job” and “a Hoax and a lie.”
The trial comes as Mr. Trump faces a barrage of legal actionsrelated to his political and business activities, including federal and state investigations, criminal charges filed by the Manhattan district attorney and a lawsuit brought by New York’s attorney general.
In Ms. Carroll’s civil suit, the standard of proof is different from that of a criminal case: The jury must decide whether her lawyers have proved by a preponderance of the evidence that Mr. Trump committed battery.
As closing arguments began Monday morning, Roberta A. Kaplan, Ms. Carroll’s lead lawyer, took the jury through the evidence, Ms. Carroll’s testimony and witnesses’ statements that she said supported it.
Two of Ms. Carroll’s friends — Lisa Birnbach, an author and journalist, and Carol Martin, a former TV anchor — each had testified that almost immediately after the encounter at Bergdorf Goodman, she had told them Mr. Trump had attacked her.
Two other women testified that they were assaulted by Mr. Trump in much the same way. Jessica Leeds, a former stockbroker, testified that Mr. Trump had groped her and kissed her without her consent in the 1970s. Natasha Stoynoff, a former writer for People magazine, said that during an interview, Mr. Trump lured her into a room at his Mar-a-Lago estate, pushed her against a wall and kissed her without her consent.
Ms. Kaplan said the defense’s position that Ms. Carroll and her witnesses were all lying was preposterous. “Donald Trump’s defense here is essentially that there is a vast conspiracy against him,” she said…..