it was an emotional day today in a manhattan courtroom as writer e. jean carroll took the stand in her civil case against donald trump telling jurors, quote, i m here because trump raped me carroll broke down in tears as she described in detail the alleged incident inside a new york department store in the 1990s. and then how after she went public with it in 2019, trump lied when he denied her claims and, quote, shattered her reputation by calling it a hoax to boost sales of her book she did not have the chance to look her alleged attacker in the eyes trump s lawyer claimed logistical reasons were keeping him from appear in the courtroom. he jets off next week to his golf courses in scotland and ireland, according to sky news despite his absence, trump was able to cause problems in the courtroom today. just after the day s proceedings began, he reiterated his claims
detail, very vivid account of what she remembers, substantially remembers about the attack she suffered in there. and the rape, specifically by donald trump it allows the jury to then come back in the morning and hear more details about it. what it does, joy, i ve direct examined countless witnesses and countless survivors. what it does is invites the jury to truly empathize with the witness and really empathize with their experience so they can kind of feel the suffering along with her as she testifies. we know that there are going to be other folks that are going to testify who have gone through similar things and that sort of trump s prior bad acts will come in let me play very quickly a smattering of what trump tends to sound like when he s talking about his own behavior they say is everybody okay you see these incredible looking women. and so i sort of get away with things like that when you re a star, they let you do it. you can do anything. whatever you want. grab the
on his twitter knockoff. that his case is, quote, a made up scam and ranted about various aspects of it. it led to the judge warning trump s lawyer who was present in the courtroom that his client s posts seem entirely inappropriate and may cross the line into tampering with the jury joining me now is kristen gibbons, former prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst and msnb reporter producer adam reese in the courtroom today. adam, give us a little bit of sense of what went on in that courtroom today. joy, the fireworks began as you said before the jury was in the courtroom. the judge, judge caplan is furious with mr. trump and his legal team because mr. trump posted on truth social today that the case is a hoax. that the attorney for e. jean carroll is a political operative. and that the dress that she was allegedly wearing on that night should be put into evidence. and the judge said, what s going on here? we gave you an opportunity to give your dna for over a year
these are evidentiary rulings. but they re significant. it establishes that intent, motive of predatory misconduct that was seen by trump both in carroll s case but also in leads and the other young lady but also in that video those are trump s words. and that is extremely important in this case, joy, where there is a high likelihood where trump will not only not testify but won t make an appearance at the trial. and so the jury will be able to hear trump s words without hearing him on the stand that is interesting, adam tomorrow, how is it expected to roll out right. trump is apparently not going to testify. he ll be in scotland what are we thinking we ll be in tomorrow 45 minutes more of direct and then cross like i said, it s going to be a brutal cross-examination they say it s impossible this could have ever happened you have no witnesses. you never called the police. there will be those outcry witnesses that i mentioned and the ones you mentioned, at least two other women who
and you haven t done that. and these statements, not only by mr. trump, by his son eric, who tweeted this afternoon absolutely inappropriate joe tacopina, mr. trump s attorney said he would speak to his client we ll see if there are any more tweets the first witness of today, the first witness of the case was a woman who is the manager of burgdorf at the time, 1996, she described the layout of the store, the floor plan. they actually showed blueprints where the lingerie department was, where her office was, where the escalators were where they allegedly came up. she said that lingerie wasn t a focus of burgdorf goodman. maybe there was one sales associate on the floor or maybe they were off working with a customer and someone screamed in the dressing room, they would have to scream loud if anyone were able to hear it finally, she said sometimes unfortunately dressing room doors were left open