E. Jean Carroll snapped at Donald Trump’s lawyer Thursday during questioning about why she didn’t scream when she was allegedly raped by the former president in a department store dressing room.
In her second day on the witness stand in a civil rape trial against Trump in Manhattan federal court — where Trump has chosen not to attend — an agitated Carroll explained, “I’m telling you, he raped me whether I screamed or not!”
The tense exchange unfolded as Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina tried to poke holes in Carroll’s account of the alleged 1996 attack in a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room asking, “you never screamed for help?”
“You can’t beat up on me for not screaming,” Carroll told Tacopina. “One of the reasons women don’t come forward is because they are always asked why they didn’t scream.”
At one point during the bitter exchange, Carroll said if she was lying about the alleged rape she would have come up with a better story that included her screaming for help.
“More people would have believed me,” she said.
Carroll said she didn’t cry out for help during the alleged assault because she was in shock and because she was focused on trying to get Trump off of her.
“I’m not a screamer,” Carroll said. “I was too much in a panic to scream. I was fighting.”
Tacopina attempted to show that Carroll’s story was unbelievable when he asked her about wearing four-inch heels during the alleged incident and finally getting her knee high enough to get Trump off of her.
“I can dance backwards and forwards in four-inch heels,” Carroll retorted.
Trump has chosen not to attend the trial.
Earlier Thursday while still on direct examination by her own lawyer, Carroll told jurors about how hard it has been to face the incessant online hatred that began after Trump publicly denied her accusations.
Carroll described “a wave of slime, very seedy comments, very denigrating, almost an endless stream of people repeating what Donald Trump said — that I was a liar, I was in it for the money, I can’t wait for the payout.”
“But the main thing was it’s very hard to get up in the morning and face the fact you are receiving these messages — that I was too ugly, too ugly to go on living,” she testified.
Carroll is suing the 45th president for allegedly raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room in 1996 and then defaming her by denying the accusations, claiming not to know her, and saying she wasn’t his “type.”
Carroll first sued the president in 2019 for calling her a “liar” and other denials in June of that year after New York Magazine published an excerpt of her memoir laying out the alleged attack.
The former Elle magazine “Ask E. Jean” columnist said she got scores of insulting messages online following Trump’s public statements. They subsided until Trump came out against her again in October 2022, she said.
Trump’s remarks derailed Carroll’s attempt to rebuild her career by publishing her column independently on Substack.com after her firing from Elle after more than 20 years — and the loss of 8 million readers, she said.
“Just when I had managed to get my Substack up and running and had managed to get my career back … Donald Trump posted on social media every single thing that I was suing him for,” Carroll said.
The jury is charged with deciding whether Trump should be held liable for allegedly defaming her with the October statements and whether he should be held liable for the alleged assault.
Jurors were shown a handful of examples of vicious tweets directed at Carroll.
“If this chick got laid by Trump, it was likely the last time she was,” one tweet said.
Carroll, 79, testified on Wednesday about how she hasn’t had a romantic relationship and hasn’t had sex since the rape, some 27 years ago, because of the trauma from the experience.
The writer said she still gets that kind of online vitriol.
“This morning, for instance, I thought I would just take a peek,” Carroll said, noting she usually tries to avoid online messages. “And there it was again, the onslaught of ‘liar,’ ‘slut,’ ‘ugly,’ ‘old.'”
“It’s not a great way to start the day,” she testified.
“But I couldn’t be more proud to be here,” she added, as her voice began to break with emotion.
Carroll said she regrets speaking out about what happened “about five times a day.”
“It doesn’t feel pleasant to be under threat,” she said. On Wednesday, Carroll told jurors she has received roughly 10 violent threats.
Carroll said during both days on the stand that she wanted to restore her reputation as a journalist.
“It’s not about the money, it’s about getting my name back,” Carroll said Thursday.
After Carroll’s lawyer finished questioning her, Trump’s lawyer Tacopina began his cross-examination of his client’s accuser.
Tacopina brought up Carroll’s book, “What Do We Need Men For?” and asked her whether that was where she told her “version” of being raped.
“Those are the facts,” Carroll snapped back.
During opening remarks Tuesday, Tacopina told jurors that Carroll made up her accusations against Trump to help boost the sales of her book.
“It was only when you were trying to get a publisher and get money to sell your book did the story come out for the first time,” Tacopina said.
But Carroll denied that scenario, saying she finally decided to come forward with her story in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein sexual misconduct scandal and the subsequent #MeToo movement.
“Across the country, women began telling their stories,” Carroll explained. “I thought the light dawned. I thought, ‘We can actually change things if we all tell our stories.’ I thought, ‘All right, this might be our time.'”
Carroll is expected to continue her testimony next week.
