“The case is a scam,” says Donald Trump on his social Truth, but – true or not – the legal case that sees him involved in the accusations of E. Jean Carroll, a 79-year-old journalist who claims to have been raped, gets to the heart in the spring of 1996 by the former president in a dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman luxury department store in Manhattan. The woman testified yesterday in a tense atmosphere, with her lawyers attacking the former tycoon for the statements she deemed “inappropriate”.
The case is considered one of the most significant post-MeToo developments. Deborah Tuerkheimer, professor of law at Northwestern University, wrote in the New York Times: “For many women, Trump has become the symbol of the sexual abuse of powerful men.” Given the concurrence of two other testimonies from women who say they are victims of Trump’s sexual harassment, Ty Cobb, a former White House lawyer who was hired by the tycoon, defined the case as “pretty difficult”. On the second day of the trial, the journalist explained to the judges for two hours what happened, describing in detail the alleged violence, made public for the first time in a book she published four years ago.
She admitted that she kept silent “out of fear” of Trump’s power and that she was not believed, fearing damage to her reputation. Carroll also accused the former president of using his political pear tree to slow down the process. The tycoon has always denied everything, even the possibility that there were witnesses. She also added a physical comment about the reporter stating that she was not her “type.”