Former President Donal Trump will not be testifying in the civil trial centered on the rape allegations of author E. Jean Carroll after his lawyers missed a judge’s Sunday (May 7) deadline requesting he testify.
Trump’s legal team had previously insisted he would not testify or appear at the trial, despite the former President saying last week in Ireland that he would likely attend the trial, claiming he had left the country early to do that.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Caplan, who is presiding over the case in New York, gave Trump’s legal team the last chance for Trump to attend the trial, giving them until 5 p.m. Sunday for the former President to decide whether he will testify in his own defense.
Trump’s decision not to testify means his defense team will not be calling witnesses in the case.
Carroll is suing the former President for assault and defamation after he publicly denied Carroll’s claim that he sexually assaulted her in a New York department store in the 1990s.
Instead, Trump accused Carroll of making the allegations to sell her books.
Kaplan said last week that unless Trump petitions to allow him to testify before Sunday’s deadline, the ship would have sailed “irrevocably.”
However, Kaplan suggested that if Trump has “second thoughts,” he’d consider those.
Both legal teams are expected to make their closing arguments in the case on Monday (May 8) since the former President decided not to testify.
Carroll’s legal team called several witnesses in the case, including a longtime friend of the author, who claimed Carroll called her minutes after the alleged assault.
The case also included testimony from a woman alleging Trump molested her on a plane in the 1970s.
