E Jean Carroll stands firm in court: 'Trump raped me'

E Jean Carroll, an advice columnist, has testified in a Manhattan court that former president Donald Trump raped her in the 1990s and that he denied it when she wrote about it. 

Carroll is seeking damages in her civil lawsuit for battery and defamation. She is accusing Trump of sexually assaulting her in a changing room in a New York department store. Trump's lawyer, Joe Tacopina, claimed that Carroll conspired with two other women to falsely accuse Trump because they "hate" him. 

Tacopina also alleged that Carroll filed the lawsuit for political ends, to sell a book and for public attention. In her testimony, Carroll sought to head off the accusation, stating that she was "settling a personal score, not a political score."

Carroll gave a detailed and at times tearful account of the alleged attack by Trump. She described going into the dressing room with him as "very stupid". Trump's lawyers have said they could yet call him to the witness stand. Trump has repeatedly claimed that the encounter never happened, that he does not know Carroll, and that she is not his "type". 

He launched a counter-attack on his Truth Social platform, calling the case "a made-up scam" and that her lawyer was a political operative.

The judge, Lewis A Kaplan, warned Trump's lawyers after the former president made inappropriate comments about the case on social media. 

Kaplan called it "entirely inappropriate" and warned that Trump may be tampering with a new source of potential liability. Trump was due to visit New Hampshire for his first campaign appearance since Joe Biden launched his own re-election bid. He was expected to speak about the economy, the opioid epidemic, and other subjects.