Trump will not testify in E. Jean Carroll rape, defamation trial

Donald Trump will not testify at a civil trial challenging the claims made by writer E. Jean Carroll, who said that he raped her in a luxury department store dressing room in the 1990s and later defamed her by denying it ever happened.

The former president let a Sunday evening deadline pass without asking the court to appear — even after he failed to show up once over the course of the two-week trial in Manhattan, during which Carroll repeated accusations against Trump that she first made in a 2019 memoir.

Without Trump’s testimony, closing arguments will be made on Monday and deliberations will likely begin Tuesday.

Trump’s attorney Joseph Tacopina told Judge Lewis Kaplan on Thursday that his client waived the right to testify and opted not to present a defense in the case.

After the jury left on Thursday, Kaplan asked Tacopina to advise Trump that he had until Sunday at 5 p.m. to inform the court whether he will testify.

“We have to know,” Kaplan said Thursday. “So Mr. Trump is not going to be coming?”

“Correct,” Tacopina responded.

“It’s his call,” the judge continued. “I understand that, you understand that, he understands that, right?”

In a video deposition played for the jury on Wednesday, Trump denied ever raping Carroll, calling her allegations the “most ridiculous and disgusting story.”

“It’s just made up,” Trump said in the video as Carroll’s lawyers presented documents to him.

Kaplan has scheduled closing arguments from the two sides for Monday.

Carroll, 79, came forward in June 2019 with her claims that Trump, 76, raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room, most likely in 1996. Her accusations were printed in her memoir and an excerpt that was published in New York Magazine.

She then filed suit against him in November 2022 for the alleged rape and for defamation, claiming Trump ruined her reputation as a journalist when he called her a liar, said he never met her and said she made up the story to increase book sales.

A jury has been overseeing the case for seven days spread over two weeks.

Carroll was on the witness stand for three days during emotional testimony including when she said she could “still feel the pain” from the alleged assault.

The former Elle magazine advice columnist is seeking unspecified monetary damages.

With Post wires.