Legal expert: 'Prepare for a plaintiff’s verdict' as Trump’s sole witness in rape trial drops out

Donald Trump will not be testifying at trial in the rape and defamation case brought against him by journalist E. Jean Carroll, his attorney told the judge on Tuesday, and now, both the plaintiff’s and defendant’s attorneys have just announced the ex-president’s sole scheduled witness will also not be testifying in the civil case.

According to one legal expert, Carroll will likely win.

“Trump’s expert witness will not be testifying, Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan just said in court. That leaves the ex-president with no live witnesses on his list,” reports Law & Crime’s Adam Klasfeld. He adds that Trump’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, “confirms: No defense case.”

New York Law Journal’s Jane Wester explains, “Donald Trump will not put on a defense case in the E. Jean Carroll case. He was expected to present a single witness, an expert, but that witness is facing health issues, his lawyer Joe Tacopina says. Carroll is expected to finish up her case tomorrow.”

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That expert witness, according to Insider, was expected to be Dr. Edgar Nace, a psychiatrist, who was expected to “testify as an expert witness over Zoom.”

Klasfeld also reports the jury should begin deliberations next week: “Judge Kaplan informs the jury that they should get the case ‘early next week.'”

Carroll is alleging Donald Trump raped her in the 1990s in a Manhattan luxury goods store, Bergdorf Goodman. She wrote about it in her memoir, and Trump not only denied the accusation but defamed her, she says.

Civil rights attorney Andrew C. Laufer says Trump not presenting any witness means he is “throwing in the towel.”

“This is literally Trump throwing in the towel,” Laufer tweeted. “To not even produce his mental health expert witness who examined the plaintiff in order to rebut her claim of damages or give testimony himself sends a terrible message to the jury. Prepare for a plaintiff's verdict. It will be appealed but it doesn’t sound like it will be successful.”