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Former President Donald Trump's lawyer, Joe Tacopina, is not making any "inroads" while cross-examining E. Jean Carroll in her defamation case against Trump, according to former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance.
Carroll, a former Elle columnist, is suing Trump over allegations that he defamed her character when he denied sexually assaulting her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in New York City in the mid-1990s, including insulting her appearance. According to the allegations in Carroll's civil suit, the former president forcibly groped and raped her.
While speaking on MSNBC's The Katie Phang Show on Saturday, Vance said, "Tacopina, frankly from what we've been able to see...he doesn't really seem to touch Carroll. She's a very determined, very fierce witness. Her story is consistent and there's no real inroads that he makes there."
Vance continued: "But he falls into this other trap that defense lawyers have to be wary of in a sexual assault case, by going on the attack against Carroll, he runs the risk of making her credibility stronger, of putting the jury on her side and willing to listen to her testimony, and that looks to be how this trial is going at this moment."
Newsweek has reached out to Trump's campaign for comment via email.
Carroll took the stand on Wednesday, and in great detail described the alleged attack. She told the courtroom that she confided in two friends and received conflicting advice—go to the police or don't, because Trump could use his wealth to harm her reputation. Carroll didn't file a police report or a lawsuit until 2019, when she filed the defamation lawsuit against him. Last November, Carroll added a battery charge to the lawsuit because of the "New York Adult Survivors Act," which allows victims to file a suit during a 1-year window even if the statute of limitations had expired.
The jury also heard that Carroll hasn't been able to have a romantic relationship or sex since the alleged rape.
Meanwhile, Trump has been vocal on Truth Social, his social media platform, in regard to the case.
On Wednesday, he wrote, "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!"
While speaking to Newsweek on Saturday about the possible impact this case may have on voters after Trump announced last November that he was running for president in 2024, political analyst Craig Agranoff said, "The impact of a guilty verdict on his 2024 prospects will depend on a number of factors. It is impossible to say for certain what the outcome will be this early on."
Agranoff continued: "It is possible that voters have become desensitized to seeing Trump face legal trouble. However, it is also possible that a guilty verdict in a high-profile case could still have a negative impact on his favorability. It is too early to say for sure how voters will react."
About the writer
Anna Commander is a Newsweek Editor and writer based in Florida. Her focus is reporting on crime, weather and breaking ... Read more