Judge Reprimands Trump For ‘Miss Bergdorf Goodman’ Post About E. Jean Carroll in Rape Case
AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura
The judge hearing the E. Jean Carroll civil rape case alleging defamation against Donald Trump was not amused by the former president’s social media antics and reprimanded him for being “entirely inappropriate.”
Carroll, a journalist and columnist, began testifying in a Manhattan courtroom Wednesday, but Trump wasn’t required to show up. Instead, he took the time to post inflammatory remarks on his Truth Social account, which Carroll’s lawyer read in court:
They got caught lying! The Miss Bergdorf Goodman case is financed by a big political donor that they tried to hide. Does anybody believe that I would take a then almost 60 year old woman that I didn’t know, from the front door of a very crowded department store, (with me being very well known, to put it mildly!), into a tiny dressing room, and …. her. She didn’t scream? There are no witnesses? Nobody saw this? She never made a police complaint? If I was seen there with a woman-BIG PRESS. SCAM!
A second post claimed Carroll was using “the ol’ Monica Lewinsky ‘stuff'” to set him up:
The E. Jean Carroll case, Ms. Bergdorf Goodman, is a made up SCAM. Her lawyer is a political operative, financed by a big political donor that they said didn’t exist, only to get caught lying about that. Just look at her CNN interview before & after the commercial break – Like a different person. She said there was a dress, using the ol’ Monica Lewinsky “stuff”, then she didn’t want to produce it. The dress should be allowed to be part of the case. This is a fraudulent & false story–Witch Hunt!
Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina told Judge Lewis Kaplan he would “try to address” the public postings about the case “with my client.”
“Well, I hope you’re more successful,” Judge Kaplan responded. He continued that Trump “may or may not be tampering with a new source of potential liability. … And I think you know what I mean.”
Trump was previously warned about his social media posts during his arraignment for the Stormy Daniels hush money business fraud case earlier this month.
Carroll is suing Trump for defamation in connection with her alleged rape in Manhattan’s Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in the 1996. She testified in court Wednesday that she could “still feel” the pain from the alleged incident.
“I always think back to why I walked in there to get myself in that situation,” Carroll told jurors in emotional testimony on day two of the trial. “I know people have been through a lot worse than this, but it left me unable to ever have a romantic life again.”
During deposition, court filings show Trump scoffed at case.
“It’s ridiculous to think an incident like that could happen in a department store,” he said. “So I say that sometimes to people. And I say can you imagine this? The concept of this? And it’s me. I — you know, a very famous person. It’s a disgrace. Frankly it’s a disgrace that something like that can be brought.”
The trial could last five to 10 days, according to the judge.
