A lawyer told a US jury on Monday that Donald Trump should be held accountable for sexually assaulting advice columnist E Jean Carroll in 1996 because even former presidents are not above the law.
Roberta Kaplan delivered the first closing argument in the federal civil trial, showing jurors video clips of Mr Trump from his October deposition and replaying an Access Hollywood recording from 2005, in which the former president said into a hot mic that celebrities can inappropriately grab women without asking.
Ms Carroll, 79, filed her lawsuit last year against Mr Trump, 76, claiming he raped her in a dressing room at a Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in 1995 or 1996, and then defamed her by denying it happened.
The former Elle magazine advice columnist is seeking unspecified monetary damages.
Closing arguments took place ahead of jury deliberations by the six-man, three-woman jury, which will take place on Tuesday.
Ms Kaplan pointed to Mr Trump's comment that “stars like him can get away with sexually assaulting women”.
“That’s who Donald Trump is. That is how he thinks. And that’s what he does,” Ms Kaplan said. “He thinks he can get away with it here.”
She told jurors that it was not a “he said, she said” case but rather one in which jurors should weigh what 11 witnesses, including Ms Carroll, said versus what they had heard from Mr Trump in his video deposition.
“He didn't even bother to show up here in person,” Ms Kaplan said.
Mr Trump has not attended the trial and is not required to.
She told jurors that much of what he said in his deposition and in public statements “actually supports our side of the case”.
“In a very real sense, Donald Trump is a witness against himself,” she said. “He knows what he did. He knows that he sexually assaulted E Jean Carroll.”
Mr Trump's lawyer on Monday called the rape and defamation case against him an affront to the justice system.
During closing arguments, Joseph Tacopina urged jurors to set aside any opinions they might have about Mr Trump and reject what the lawyer called Ms Carroll's effort to “profit” from what he called a false story.
“What E Jean Carroll has done here is an affront to justice. She has abused this system by bringing a false claim for, amongst other things, money, status, political reasons,” Mr Tacopina said.
Mr Trump has insisted in public statements and in his deposition that Ms Carroll made up the claims to boost sales of a 2019 memoir.
In a video deposition played for the jury last Wednesday, Mr Trump denied raping Ms Carroll.
“It's the most ridiculous, disgusting story,” Mr Trump said in the video, hunched over a conference table as Ms Carroll's lawyers presented documents to him. “It's just made up.”
Ms Carroll, who is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, gave evidence over more than two days during the trial, which is entering its third week.
She said she was leaving a Bergdorf Goodman store through a revolving door as Mr Trump was entering. He allegedly stopped her to help him shop for a gift for a woman.
Ms Carroll said they eventually took escalators to the store's desolate sixth floor, where they teased each other about trying on a piece of see-through lingerie.
She said she entered a dressing room with Mr Trump before the flirtatious outing turned violent, with him slamming her against a wall, pulling down her tights and raping her.
After the encounter, which lasted several minutes, she said she kneed him and fled the store.
Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is unrelated to Roberta Kaplan, told jurors that they would begin deliberations on Tuesday after he spends about an hour reading them the law that will pertain to battery and defamation, the two allegations they must decide on.
Agencies contributed to this report
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Recharge as needed, says Mat Dryden: “We try to make it a rule that every two to three months, even if it’s for four days, we get away, get some time together, recharge, refresh.” The couple take an hour a day to check into their businesses and that’s it.
Stick to the schedule, says Mike Addo: “We have an entire wall known as ‘The Lab,’ covered with colour-coded Post-it notes dedicated to our joint weekly planner, content board, marketing strategy, trends, ideas and upcoming meetings.”
Be a team, suggests Addo: “When training together, you have to trust in each other’s abilities. Otherwise working out together very quickly becomes one person training the other.”
Pull your weight, says Thuymi Do: “To do what we do, there definitely can be no lazy member of the team.”
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The biog
Born: Kuwait in 1986
Family: She is the youngest of seven siblings
Time in the UAE: 10 years
Hobbies: audiobooks and fitness: she works out every day, enjoying kickboxing and basketball
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
Dirham Stretcher tips for having a baby in the UAE
Selma Abdelhamid, the group's moderator, offers her guide to guide the cost of having a young family:
• Buy second hand stuff
They grow so fast. Don't get a second hand car seat though, unless you 100 per cent know it's not expired and hasn't been in an accident.
• Get a health card and vaccinate your child for free at government health centres
Ms Ma says she discovered this after spending thousands on vaccinations at private clinics.
• Join mum and baby coffee mornings provided by clinics, babysitting companies or nurseries.
Before joining baby classes ask for a free trial session. This way you will know if it's for you or not. You'll be surprised how great some classes are and how bad others are.
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Take the food with you in reusable pouches or jars. You'll save a fortune and you'll know exactly what you're feeding your child.
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Our legal advisor
Ahmad El Sayed is Senior Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.
Experience: Commercial litigator who has assisted clients with overseas judgments before UAE courts. His specialties are cases related to banking, real estate, shareholder disputes, company liquidations and criminal matters as well as employment related litigation.
Education: Sagesse University, Beirut, Lebanon, in 2005.
if you go
Getting there
Etihad (Etihad.com), Emirates (emirates.com) and Air France (www.airfrance.com) fly to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport, from Abu Dhabi and Dubai respectively. Return flights cost from around Dh3,785. It takes about 40 minutes to get from Paris to Compiègne by train, with return tickets costing €19. The Glade of the Armistice is 6.6km east of the railway station.
Staying there
On a handsome, tree-lined street near the Chateau’s park, La Parenthèse du Rond Royal (laparenthesedurondroyal.com) offers spacious b&b accommodation with thoughtful design touches. Lots of natural woods, old fashioned travelling trunks as decoration and multi-nozzle showers are part of the look, while there are free bikes for those who want to cycle to the glade. Prices start at €120 a night.
More information: musee-armistice-14-18.fr ; compiegne-tourisme.fr; uk.france.fr
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ACC 2019: The winners in full
Best Actress Maha Alemi, Sofia
Best Actor Mohamed Dhrif, Weldi
Best Screenplay Meryem Benm’Barek, Sofia
Best Documentary Of Fathers and Sons by Talal Derki
Best Film Yomeddine by Abu Bakr Shawky
Best Director Nadine Labaki, Capernaum
