E. Jean Carroll defamation case: Judge denies Trump's motion for mistrial

The defense's motion for a directed verdict, made after Carroll's attorneys rested their case, asked the judge to end the trial due to a lack of evidence.

"Ms. Carroll has failed to establish any causal link between her claim for damages and President Trump's statement," defense attorney Alina Habba said. "On causation alone, she has not proven her facts."

Habba argued, as she did in her opening statement, that people were disparaging Carroll prior to Trump issuing his defamatory denials. She also argued Carroll could not prove she received death threats at the time because she deleted messages that contained them, prompting an interjection from the judge.

"Your theory here is that she should be punished because, before there was litigation, she deleted tweets that could be helpful to her?" Judge Lewis Kaplan asked. "That's not my argument," Habba replied. "Sounds like it," the judge said.

Carroll's attorney, Roberta Kaplan, argued that she had met her burden.

"We believe there is more than ample evidence, causation, here to allow the case to go to the jury," Roberta Kaplan said.

The judge denied the defense's motion. Next up will be the defense's first witness.

Following concluding statements, E. Jean Carroll's attorneys have rested their case.

They will now give way to Trump's attorneys to present the defense's case.

The defense, meanwhile, has asked the judge for a directed verdict to halt the proceedings and decide the case in their favor.

E. Jean Carroll's attorneys ended their defamation case against former President Trump by showing the jury some of Trump's social media posts and soundbites from his campaign rallies in which he repeats the defamatory statements he has made about her.

The jury also saw a portion of Trump's videotaped deposition for Carroll's case that he sat for in October 2022, in which Trump was given a copy of the 2019 New York magazine article that first published Carroll's sexual assault allegation.

"Did you ever read this article?" plaintiff's attorney Roberta Kaplan asked in the deposition. "No," Trump responded.

Kaplan, in the deposition, also read Trump's defamatory response to the article and asked, "Do you stand by the statement?" Trump responded, "Yes."

The jury also heard Trump in the deposition affirm that he stood by a June 24, 2019, statement in which he said Carroll was "not my type."

"You meant she was not your type, physically right?" Kaplan asked. "Physically, she's not my type," Trump responded. "The only difference between me and other people is that I'm honest."

The jury also saw the excerpt of the deposition in which Trump was handed an old black-and-white photo of him, his first wife Ivana, Carroll, and her then-husband John Johnson, and temporarily mistook Carroll for his second wife Marla Maples.

After the confusion, Kaplan, in the deposition, asked Trump if the three women he married were his type, and Trump answered, "Yeah."

Trump, in the deposition, also conceded that he had no information about Carroll's political party or evidence that she was pursuing a political agenda.

The jury also saw an excerpt of a videotaped deposition Trump gave in April 2023 as part of Trump's separate civil fraud lawsuit in which Trump boasted about his wealth, and estimated that the value of his Mar-a-Lago resort is $1.5 billion -- possibly meant to show the jury that Trump can afford a large damage award.

E. Jean Carroll was a "beloved" columnist at Elle magazine, her former editor testified as the final witness in Carroll's case.

"She was beloved by the readers," Roberta Myers testified. "I would say she was the most prominent columnist that we had. I thought of her column as a destination. People would often pick up the magazine and go to her column first."

"She's a truth-teller," Myers said of Carroll.

On cross-examination, defense attorney Alina Habba established that Myers is a registered Democrat who did not vote for Trump in either 2016 or 2020.

When Habba asked whether Myers planned to vote for Trump in 2024, Myers answered, "I don't think I have to say what I plan to do."

Trump watched Myers' testimony from his seat at the defense table.