Legal experts panned Donald Trump's attorney Joe Tacopina after his closing arguments on Monday but cautioned that the former president could still prevail against E. Jean Carroll's rape and defamation claims.
Carroll lawyer Roberta Kaplan on Tuesday reviewed the evidence in the trial for the jury and contrasted her client's days on the stand to Trump's refusal to testify.
"You saw for yourself, E. Jean Carroll wasn't hiding anything," Kaplan said, adding that Trump "didn't even bother to show up."
Kaplan argued that Carroll's testimony was "credible," "consistent" and "powerful," linking her allegations to Trump's infamous Access Hollywood tape, telling the jury that Trump "grabbed her by the pussy, or vagina, I apologize for my language."
Kaplan called Trump a "witness against himself" after citing his repeated admissions and lies in his deposition. Kaplan noted that despite Trump's claim that Carroll was not his "type," he confused a photo of her for his ex-wife Marla Maples and "only corrected himself when his own lawyer."
"[Carroll] was exactly his type," Kaplan said. "He made up an excuse. He said it was blurry, it is not blurry."
Trump during his deposition defended his comments on the Access Hollywood tape, arguing that it has been "largely true, unfortunately or fortunately."
"Who would say 'fortunately' to describe an act of sexual assault?" Kaplan said on Monday. "He thinks stars like him can get away with it."
Kaplan then listed a litany of lies by Trump about Carroll. In order to find for Trump, Kaplan argued, you "have to conclude that Donald Trump, the nonstop liar, is the only person here telling the truth."
Carroll's attorneys declined to ask for specific monetary damages.
"For E. Jean Carroll, this lawsuit is not about the money," Kaplan said, but about getting her "name back."
Legal experts praised Kaplan's handling of the case while panning Tacopina's rebuttal.
"Obviously, we won't know until a verdict arrives" whether Trump's absence had consequences, wrote MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin. "But did Carroll's lawyers exploit his absence in their closing and rebuttal? You best believe it."
Carroll's lawyers "were as close to perfect as I have seen," former federal prosecutor Mitchell Epner wrote in a Daily Beast op-ed, while Tacopina's "disastrous" closing argument "was remarkably bad, largely reduced to various versions of 'Are you kidding me?'"
Tacopina claimed that Carroll had "abused the system" and brought the case for money "and victimized real rape victims, exploiting their pain and suffering," according to Law & Crime.
Epner noted that Tacopina made a "few strong points" in his argument, citing Carroll's inability to specify the date of the alleged attack and Trump's repeated denials. Tacopina also argued that Carroll did not mention the assault in her diary and that the testimony of Carroll's psychological expert could not be relied upon.
But Tacopina also made arguments that "have no chance of persuading any juror who was not already on Trump's side," Epner wrote.
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Tacopina attacked Carroll's expert as a "hired gun" and attacked Carroll for not going to the police about the alleged attack. He argued that Carroll only came forward to "sell books" and disputed her testimony and that of her corroborating witnesses.
Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is not related to Carroll's attorney, repeatedly shut down Tacopina's arguments that ran afoul of his rules for the trial.
Tacopina tried to claim that Carroll's story was made up based on a "Law & Order: SVU" episode that included a rape in a Bergdorf Goodman but the judge instructed the jury not to consider an email about the episode. Kaplan also shut down Tacopina's attempt to tie Carroll's decision to sue Trump to anti-Trump attorney George Conway.
During another exchange, Kaplan "ruled that Tacopina had mischaracterized the evidence" while discussing a message sent by Kaplan, Epner wrote, adding that Trump's lawyer was "humiliated (again) by Judge Kaplan."
After Tacopina's arguments, Carroll attorney Michael Ferrara rebutted his key points before turning back to Trump's comments in the Access Hollywood tape.
"Trump never said it wasn't true. It was a confession. It was not just locker room talk. I've been in locker rooms and I've never heard about furniture shopping," Ferrara said. "Trump said, 'I move on her like a B-I-T-C-H.'Like in Bergdorf's, shopping. Grabs them by their genitals. That's not locker room talk, when Donald Trump says it. He did exactly that."
Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti acknowledged that Tacopina "knows his way around a courtroom" but "he was not the right choice for this case."
Mariotti also acknowledged that Trump's absence "made it very difficult for his lawyers to mount a defense."
"If she prevails," he tweeted, "Trump's empty chair at trial may end up being one of the most important factors in that verdict."
The jury is set to get the case on Tuesday. Epner cautioned that despite Tacopina's performance "the jury may rule for Trump, largely because of one glaring weakness in Carroll's case: her inability to identify the day, date, week, month, or year when Trump allegedly raped her in the lingerie department of Bergdorf Goodman."
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